Vol. VIII. The glory of God is intelligence. No. 9
IMPROVEMENT
ERA.
Organ of Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations.
PUBLISHED BY THE GENERAL BOARD.
JOSEPH r. Smith, ) lnutnro Heber J. Grant, j Business
Edward R. Anderson j I!'UUUI:'- Thomas* Hull, J Managers.
Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as Second-Class Matter.
JULY, 1905.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
The Sabbath Day Frederic C lift, M. D. 64F
The Sea Gulls and the Crickets — A Poem J. L. Townsend 656
A Mother's Letters to Her Missionary Son — V Susa Young Gates 659
Be Thankful for the Shadows — A Poem Grace Ingles Frost 663
Am I Converted, and if so, How Much? Dr. J. X. Allen 664
Impression vs. Expression Ernest M. Hall 667
The Royal Diploma— A Poem Theo. E. Curtis 672
A Prophetic Dream.— A Story Lou Lewis 676-
A Climate Modifier Fred J. Pack 681
Faith Versus Doubt.— A Poem Alfred Osmond 687
The Fulness of the Priesthood A. A. Ramseyer 689
To the Work— A Poem 694
Topics of Moment — Rupture Between Norway
and Sweden — Battle of the Sea of Japan —
Peace Talk— Results of the Naval Battle-
Cuba's Growth 69S
Editor's Table— Loyalty to Home Interests Prest. Joseph F. Smith 70O»
The Fourth of July W Mar d Done 702
Questions and Answers 704
Notes 705-
In Lighter Mood 707
Our Work— M. I. A. Annual Conference 709
Events of the Month Joseph F. Smith, Jr. 715-
SALT LAKE CITY:
214 ^ 215 TEMPLETON BUILDING.
Published Monthly. $2.00 Per Annum.
KEEP MONEY AT HOME
BY INSURING IN THE
Don't carry your own risk.
HEBER i. GRANT & CO.,
GENERAL AGENTS.
20-26 South Main Street, Salt Lake City.
John G. McClalD, Prest. Theo. T. Burton, Sec.
W. J. Burton, Treas.
BURTON COAL S LUMBER CO.
GOAL.
LUMBER
All kinds of
Of all
kinds.
Wholesale and Betall. Lumber In car lots
a specialty.
Office, 60 W. Second South St. Yards, Cor.
Fifth South and Third West St.
Telephone 808.
THE.
STATE BAJIK of DTflH
Accounts Solicited.
Correspondence Invited.
OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS.
Joseph F. Smith, President.
Wm. B. Preston, Vice-President.
Charles S. Burton, Cashier.
Henry T. McEwan, Ass't Cashier.
Heber J. Grant, Jos. D. Murdock,
A.W.Carlson, Heber M. Wells,
Byron Groo, Isaac P.arton.
Telephone 351.
Jos.Wm.Taylor,
UTAH'S LEADING UNDERTAKER
AND LICENSED EMBALMER.
Fine Funeral Chapel, Private Par-
lor, Show Rooms and Morgue.
OFFICE OPEN DAY AND NIGHT.
21,23, 25 South West Temple St.
SALT LAKE CITT, UTAH.
ORLflN CLYDE CULLEN,
COUNSELOR-RT-LflW.
U. S. Supreme Court, Registered Attorney
U.S. Patent Office, United States and For-
eign Patents, Caveats, Trade Marks and
Copyrights.
No. 700 7th Street, N. W.
Opp. U. S. Patent Office WR8HINQT0N.D.C.
YOU ARE DELUDING YOURSELF
WHEN YOU SAY,
"A Telephone
would be of
no use to me
at the house/
TRY IT AND SEE.
Ask any of your many
friends who have it.
J* J> jt
ONE DOLLAR PER MONTH IS
TOO CHEAP TO REQUIRE
ARGUMENT.
(When writing to Advertisers, please mention tbe Era.)
SALTAIR
Pavilion entirely enclosed, both upper and lower floors, with
glass. Largest and finest hard wood dance floor in the United
States. New restaurant just completed. Any thing you want
to eat at popular prices, no need carrying lunches.
We are now booking dates and Will be pleaded to hear from
the various Associations as soon as possible.
Season of 1905 opens May 30th, Decoration Day.
J. E. LANGFORD, Le?s< e.
MISSIONARIES
should wrte to
or call on tbe
SALT LAKE KNITTING WORKS
for their
HOSIERY, UNDERWEAR AND "GARMENTS"
before leaving for
their fields of labor.
We have a full line of
WHITE SHIRTS, HOSIERY. NECKWEAR
Our Specialty is KNITTED "GARMENTS."
We have them in Cotton from $1.00 up
and In Wool from *1.75up.
qrder;by|m°il from vjs.
"When ordering "Garments" s^nd your
height, weight, chest measure and lengtii of
sleeve to
Salt hake Knittinq Works,
SRLT L.KKB CITY. UT7SH.
JOSEPH R. SMITH, Mgr.
DIRECTORS :
Joseph F Smith President.
Rudger Clawson, Vice-President.
Thomas Hull,
Joseph Nelson,
AlvlnF. Smith.
^fee6fr£feefcf-ec-f-.*f«f-.fet<.f--eef-.^k
People You
Like to Meet
Are found on the through trains of the
Santa Fe Route. First-class travel is at-
tracted to first-class roads. The Santa Fe
Route is a first-class road.
It is one of the three LARGEST RAIL-
WAY SYSTEMS in the world. Present
mileage, 7,734 miles.
It extends from Lake Michigan to the
Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, reach-
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» It runs the finest and fastest trans-con-
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Its MEAL SERVICE, managed by Mr.
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Its TRACK is rock-ballasted and laid
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On such a road as this, LONG DIS-
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Every comfort and luxury desired by
modern travelers.
May we sell you a ticket over the Santa
Fe?
IV. J. BLACK, ». P. A., A. T. <t S. F. RY.
TOREK A, KAN9AS.
%*M»MiM*i»«*a*»a»*§**n£:
(When writing to Advertisers, please men nun u»e tL.r
THE PRESTIGE OE AN OLD NAME
sometimes causes imitation.
THERE is only one Taylor Romney- Armstrong-Co.,
organized in 1869, aad ±t\\\ doing business under
the same name. Be sure you get the name right.
No need to tell you that we sell lumber of all kinds
and everything else that is usually sold by a first class yard.
We also do custom mill work — yes, lots of it. Other
dealers v>ho send us their mill work tell us they do so
because the work is done better than elsewhere. No
aoubt that is the reason. Suppose you try it.
TAYliOHOMJiEMRIiSTKOflG-GO.,
South Temple and Second West.
^— aMiiiiMii ii tmmmmmanmmmMBmmmmmmmmtmmmi^B^
SAVE YOUR MONEY, AND WHEN YO'i GET A DOLLAR DEPOSIT IT WITH
ZION'S SAVINGS BANK & TRUST COHPANY.
4 Per Ont Interest Paid
on 81. to S5.000.
OFFICERS.
Joseph F. Smith,
President
Anthon H. Lund,
Vice-President
George M. Cannon,
Cashier
Lewis M. Cannon,
Asst. Cashier
DIRECTORS
Joseph F. Smith
Anthon H. Lund
John R. Winder
T. G. Webber
James Jack
John T. Caine
Angus M. Cannon
Francis M. Lyman
George Reynolds
L. John Nuttall
Angus J. Cannon
A. O. Woodruff
Hyrum M. Smith
NO,l MRIN ST REET, SHLT LHK8 CITY, - UTHH
(When writing to Advertisers, please mention the Era.)
IMPROVEMENT ERA
Vol. VIII. JULY, 1905. No. 9.
THE SABBATH DAY.*
FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION.
BY FREDRIC CLIFT, M. D., BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY.
In a previous articlef entitled, Sunday in the New Testament,
it was shown that Christ and his apostles adopted the first day of
the week for the breaking of bread and the offering of prayer and
praise. It was also shown that owing to a mistranslation of the
* This and the previous article entitled, Sunday in the New Testa-
ment, are commended to the notice of missionaries, especially those called
upon to labor in certain fields, where the observance of the Seventh day
Sabbath is made the pivot around which the gospel must turn. As our
friends will not accept modern revelation, we must meet them on their
own ground; and these articles are designed to confute Seventh day ar-
guments, both from the philological and historic standpoints. The
question is a side issue, but we are often called upon to meet it, before
we are allowed to state or discuss the doctrines of the everlasting gos-
pel of Jesus Christ.
I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to previous writers on this
subject for many facts and thoughts, and especially to Messrs. Warner,
Lean and "Pudens."— F. C.
f Improvement Era, April, 1905.
€42 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
Greek word "Sabbaton," in a number of places, the first day of the
week, or Sunday, was deprived of its Sabbatical character, and
that in so doing the King James and associated versions followed
the errors of the Presbyterian or Genevan Bible of 1557, A. D.
Let us now consider the subject from the purely historical
standpoint of both Old and New Testaments. Mark opens his gos-
pel by declaring, "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the
Son of God," and it is elsewhere stated, "The law was until John."
Paul, however, in Galatians 3, declares: "The scripture, foresee-
ing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached
before the gospel unto Abraham;" and he further writes, "And
this I say, that the covenant [with Abraham], that was con-
firmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred
and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the
promise of none effect before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterward
be revealed [in Christ]. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." From
this we understand that the gospel was upon the earth, prior to
the time when the law of carnal commandments was given to Moses.
We accept the fact that there have been several dispensa-
tions of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that Abraham, amongst
others, lived in such a dispensation, and was enabled to look for-
ward in faith to the coming and death of Christ; and, further, that
having sufficient faith, he accepted his atoning sacrifice, and that
thus "even as Abraham believed God, it was accounted to him for
righteousness."
The question may be asked, did the gospel dispensation under
which Abraham lived require him, under penalty of law, to observe
the Sabbath? Before considering the evidence contained in the
Bible itself, let us recall the belief and practice of the early
Christians. They had just emerged from under the tutelage of
those who had received the gospel from the very lips of our Lord
himself, and must, therefore, be presumed to have been in touch
with its spirit. We find that Eu3ebius, the earliest Christian Church
historian, born in Judea, A. D. 270, says, "The Patriarchs had not
the Sabbath of the law," and in Book I, chapter 4, referring to
those who lived before Abraham, writes, "They did not, therefore,
THE SABBATH DAY. 643
regard circumcision nor observe the Sabbath, neither do we, neither
do we abstain from certain foods, or regard other injunctions
which Moses subsequently delivered to be observed in types and
symbols, because such things as these do not belong to Christians."
If this is true, neither do they belong to us, for we, like Christ
himself, are free from the law of Moses. We render obedience to
the law of the gospel, summaries of which are found in Matthew
22: 35-40 and 19: 17-19. Christ promulgated no Sabbath law,
and Paul, when preaching that self-same gospel, reiterates Christ's
commands in Romans 13: 9, and further explains the position in
Romans 6: 14, 15, "For ye are not under the law, but under grace.
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but
under grace? God forbid."
This does not mean that Christians have no Sabbath. Their
Sabbath is one of commemoration, prayer, praise and thanksgiving.
They keep it not because of any law, but because they are led by
the Spirit, "having received the promise of the spirit through
faith," which has led them to reverence the day of the resurrection
and each succeeding first day of the week as the "Lord's day.''
The Sabbatical character of the first day is fully established by the
writings and practice of the apostles and their immediate succes-
sors. It is a day of great activity in the vineyard of the Lord —
whereas, the Jews were not allowed to do any manner of work.
The Christian world believes today that the principles of moral
right and wrong, which prevailed before the law was pub-
lished on Sinai, prevail now, and that such spiritual laws — as dis-
tinguished from the carnal laws of Moses — have remained un-
changed since the covenant made by Moses, on behalf of the
Israelites, was abolished by Christ. The nature of the gospel law
is unchangeable, for although, owing to the perversity of men, it
may be necessary to suspend its enactments and provide a tem-
porary law, as in the case of the law of Moses, yet the funda-
mental law remains the same, and is in force for those whose
lives are in accord with the Supreme will. This is proved by a
reference to Doctrine and Covenants 59: 9-12, where the spirit of
the Gospel Sabbath law, is once more proclaimed to the people of
God.
Let us examine and learn whether these statements are
644 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
supported or not by the facts as given to us in the Bible. In Gen-
esis 2: 2, 3, we find that God rested on the seventh day from all his
work, which he had made, and God blessed the seventh day and
sanctified it. This work, as shown in verses 4 and 5, was the
spiritual creation of the earth, including the spiritual Adam, to-
gether with every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and
every herb of the field before it grew. It was after this spiritual work
was finished that God, our Father, rested — there is no record that the
spiritual Adam rested or that he received a Sabbath law. Time hav-
ing been allowed for God's laws to mature, the material creation by
Jehovah God, followed, and man was given an earthly, in addition to
the spiritual, body which he already possessed, and these two bodies
became a living soul. Let us recall Paul's statement in I Corin-
thians 15: 44, "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual
body The first man is of the earth, earthy." Whilst
John the Baptist declares, (John 3: 31) "he, that is of the earth, is
earthly." This earthly creation is still incomplete, for a great
multitude of spirits who kept their first estate have not yet re-
ceived their mortal bodies, and God's rest from his material cre-
ation of this earth and its inhabitants is yet a future event. There
is no record that the earthly Adam received a Sabbath law, or that
God or Adam observed it whilst the earth remained in its paradis-
ical condition. Not that there was no Sabbath, but Adam and the
patriarchs, like Paul, regarded each day alike. "He that regard-
eth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not
the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it." (Romans 14: 6.) There
is no evidence to show that any Sabbath law was, subsequently,
after the expulsion from Eden, given to Adam or his immediate
descendants. The evidence all points to the contrary, for when
God blessed Noah and made a covenant with him, (Genesis 9: 8)
nothing was said touching a Sabbath law. So, too, when Abraham
(Genesis 17: 8) entered into covenant with God, and the law of cir-
cumcision was given, no reference is found to any Sabbath law.
This, as we learn from Paul, was 430 years before the delivery of
the law to Moses on Sinai. Consider, the people became so wicked
that all but eight souls were destroyed, and, although the Bible
describes and gives details of the crimes of the sons of God and
of men, as also those of the immediate descendants of Abraham
1HE SABBATH DAY. 645
during the 430 years, yet not one single reference is therein made
to the breaking by them of any Sabbath law. If this law had been
delivered to Adam, is it possible, judging from what the Bible has
to say about the Sabbath, after it was given to Moses and recorded
by hia in Exodus 20, that God would have failed to inspire that
same Moses to record the giving of such a law to the Antedilu-
vians, Noah, Abraham, and other seekers after God? It is incred-
ible that such a thing should be. The first Old Testament refer-
ence to a keeping of the Sabbath by any of the descendants of
Adam is found in Exodus 16: 23-29, where directions are given to
the Israelites for the gathering of manna, and preparation of food
on the sixth day for use on the following, or Sabbath day. This
brings us to the delivery of the ten commandments, written on
two tables of stone, as narrated in Exodus 20, the Sabbath law
being found in verses 8 and 11.
The question arises, with whom was this covenant made ? It was
made between Jehovah God, and the children of Israel, after they
had come up out of Egypt. Deuteronomy 5: 2 declares: "The Lord
our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this
covenant with our Fathers; (Jacob, Abraham, Noah) but with us,
even us who are all of us here alive this day." Our Father, deter-
mined that there should be no room for mistake on this point, in-
spired Nehemiah to write as follows (9: 13), "Thou earnest down
also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and
gavest them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and
commandments, and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath
and gavest them bread from heaven for their hun-
ger," thus coupling together the two events found narrated in
Exodus 16 and 20. Further, inspired Moses wrote in Deuteronomy
4: 13: "And he declared unto you his covenant which he com-
manded you to perform, even ten commandments, and he wrote them
on two tables of stone," and in order that no error might creep in,
as to the identity of these laws or any addition thereto, the same
inspired author in Deuteronomy 5: 22, says, "These words the
Lord spake unto all your assembly, in the Mount out of the midst
of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great
voice, and he added no more— and he wrote them in two tables of
stone and delivered them to me." And in Deuteronomy 9:9, we
646 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
have this further statement identifying the two tables of stone
with the tables of the covenant, "And when I was gone up into
the Mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the
covenant which the Lord made with you And it came to
pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave
me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant."
It will be remembered that the tables of the covenant were
placed in the Ark, and we find Solomon, in speaking of the temple
tnat he built for the Lord, (I Kings 8: 21), says, "And I have set
there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the Lord
which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land
of Egypt." Inspired Paul, writing to the Hebrews 9:4, referring to
the rites and sacrifices of the law, says, "Which had the golden
censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold,
wherein was the golden pot that had manna and the
tables of the covenant." The children of Israel failed, however, to
live up to this, their covenant with God, and as a result, we find
the prophet Hosea declaring God's anger, and saying, "I will also
cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons and
her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts." This prophecy as we
know came true. Troubles followed fast and thick; the children
of Israel, after the death of Solomon, were rent asunder into two
hostile nations. Jeroboam, King of Israel, caused his people to
sin by setting up an idolatrous form of religion, that of Baal, at
Bethel, and in Dan. This apostasy led to their captivity in Assyria,
and their final dispersion amongst the nations of the world. The
house of Judah were carried captive to Babylonia, but having
profited somewhat by their punishment, were allowed to return to
Judea, where they continued until their final act of apostasy, the
rejection of their promised Messiah — the Christ — which made
them once more outcasts upon the face of the earth. Jesus, as
Lord of the Sabbath, endeavored to teach his people the principles
of the gospel Sabbath, but they "sought the more to kill him be-
cause he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God
was his Father, making himself equal with God" (John 5, 18).
That Jesus was indeed Lord of the Sabbath, is not only declared
by Christ himself,(Mark 2: 28) but also by Paul in Ephesians 1: 22,
where he states that "God hath put all things under his feet, and
THE SABBATH DAY. 647
gave him to be head over all things to the church." This included
authority to delegate power to others, and it was under this au-
thority that the apostles, at the first Council of the Church at Je-
rusalem in A. D. 50, declared the abolition of the law, or covenant
of circumcision, and subsequently sanctioned the gradual abolition
of feast days, new moons and Sabbaths, including the feast of the
Passover. It was under this power, given to him by his Father,
and our Father, that Jesus promulgated the two great gospel com-
mandments, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and
great commandment, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself, on these two commandments, hang all the
law and the prophets."
Paul, recognizing the fact that Christians are not under the
law, but under grace, amplifies the gospel law, (Romans 13: 9,) and
says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou
shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not
covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly com-
prehended in this saying, viz., thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy-
self." Having thus stated the gospel or Christ's law, in which no ref-
erence is made either by Christ himself, or Paul, to the keeping of
the Sabbath, we find that the latter further adds, "Wherefore my
brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ;"
and, as people even in his day had already begun to enjoy disputa-
tions, he says,Romans 14: 1-6, "Him that is weak in the f aith,receive
ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one bplieveth that he may
eat all things, another, who is weak eateth herbs; let not him that
eateth despise him that eateth not One man esteemeth one
day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. — Let every
man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the
day, regardeth it unto the Lord ; and he that regardeth not the
day, to the Lord he doth not regard it." In II Corinthians 3, Paul
compares the law of Moses with that of the gospel, saying, "Who
hath made us able ministers of the new testament, (covenant)
not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and
engraved in stones, was glorious how shall not the
ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? Now
648 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty." As showing that the law had been abolished, Paul
writing to the Hebrews 7: 12, declared, "For the priesthood being
changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law."
When, through the hardness of heart of the descendants of Jacob,
God withdrew the gospel and gave, in place thereof, the law of
carnal commandments, there was a change of priesthood. The
liead of the Melchizedek priesthood is Jesus Christ, it is therefore
necessarily the controlling priesthood of the gospel. Where there
is no gospel, there is no need for the higher priesthood. Conse-
quently, Moses was in that dispensation the last to hold the keys,
and although individuals thereafter, occasionally, held the priest-
hood, they did not act in that calling until Christ came and re-
stored the gospel in its fulness of priesthood and power. During
Mosaic times, the Aaronic priesthood acted as the schoolmaster,
and sought by force of penalties to compel the Israelites and Jews
to live up to the covenant made by them with their Father in heaven,
but history relates their continued failure. With the restoration of
the gospel and its accompanying priesthood, Jesus, as the great
High Priest thereof, became the surety of a better testament
(covenant) whereby God through his servant Paul declared, (Hebrews
8: 10), "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel, after those days, said the Lord. I will put my laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God,
and they shall be to me a people." These gospel laws were written
in the minds and hearts of the Patriarchs, but when their descend-
ants, after their deliverance from Egypt, hardened their hearts,
the gospel was taken from them, the carnal law of Moses taking
its place. Now, however, we are made free, and are no longer
under the schoolmaster, for Christ says, "Lo, I come to do thy will,
0 God," and Paul adds, "He has taken away the first that he may
establish the second."
Let us now deal with another phase of the question. In all,
these scriptures — these ten commandments written on the tables
of stone — and "no more," constitute the covenant between God
and the people of Israel. Seventh- day worshipers, however, when
brought face to face with the indisputable facts, must admit de-
feat or find some new ground for disputation. Accordingly, when
THE SABBATH DAY. 649
compelled to admit that the covenant was a temporary law
given for a specific purpose, that it was limited to the Israel-
ites and their descendants, and that same was abolished by Christ
or his apostles acting under his authority, they shift their ground,
and hunt up some uninspired dictionary for a definition of the
word covenant. Having found therein that a covenant is a mutual
agreement between two or more persons, they refer to Exodus 19:
5-8, "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my
covenant And all the people answered together and
said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." It is claimed
that this, and nothing else, was the covenant that was made be-
tween God and the Israelites, because, forsooth, a "covenant is a
mutual agreement between two or more persons," and that, conse-
quently, the ten commandments are still in force, inasmuch as they
do not constitute a covenant within the dictionary definition. If
so, why did Christ and Paul, as already shown, reiterate some of
them and omit others?
Let us, however, seek inspiration from the Lord, and accept
his definition of the particular covenant made between himself and
Israel as follows (Deuteronomy, 5: 22-23): "These words the
Lord spoke unto all your assembly in the mount out of the
fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness; and he aided no
more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone and delivered
them unto me." This definition or identification is complete, but
Moses clinches the matter in Deuteronomy 9: 9 — "When I was
gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the
tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you." Further-
more, after the Lord had, in Exodus 20, spoken "All these words,"
— the ten commandments— Moses came and wrote all the words of
the Lord, including the commandments "And he took
the book of the covenant and read it in the audience of the people,
and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obe-
dient." Then came the reason for keeping the Sabbath day by
the Israelites, as related in Exodus 31: 13: "Verily my Sabbaths
ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your
generations."
It has been asserted that the Sabbath law given on Mount
Sinai formed part of Gods organic or constitutional law, and was
650 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
therefore immutable and unchangeable. Yet here we find God
declaring that it was a sign only. Notwithstanding, therefore,
that our friends would limit Christ's power and authority, and de_
prive him of part of the fruits of his victory over death, we find
that those to whom he delegated his power, abolished circumcision
as also the passover: both of which had been established as signs,
and were as immutable as the Sabbath law itself. In reporting
the judgment given at the council of Jerusalem in relation to the
sign of circumcision, Luke says (Acts 15: 28): "For it seemed good
to the Holy Ghost and to us.:' The authority delegated to the
apostles was therefore no empty sham, but was approved by God
himself.
That Christ and his apostles did abolish this Sabbath sign is
proved by reference to the Gree"k text of the New Testament.
This has been fully discussed in the previous article. It will be
remembered that John, in Revelation 1- 10, refers to the "Lord's
day." It has been asserted by some that he referred to the Jew-
ish or Saturday Sabbath, while some Roman Catholic writers, in
controversy with the Protestant sects, by connecting the events
of the fourth chapter with those of the preceding chapters, seek
to show that this expression refers to the judgment day, which is
yet to come. It is not to be presumed that the whole of the reve-
lations were received by John on this one particular Sunday. They
were no doubt spread over several days, perhaps weeks, or even
months. Either construction is entirely foreign to the current
views and writings of the immediate followers of the apostles, and
who were known as the apostolic fathers. They invariably refer
to Sunday, the first day of the week, as the Christian Sabbath or
the Lord's day. And in doing this, they bear testimony to a fact
within their individual knowledge — not to an opinion.
Justin Martyr, born A. D. 114, less than twenty years after
John wrote bis gospel, in his Apology, chapter 67, says: "And on
the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country
gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the apostles, or
the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits.
Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common as-
sembly For he was crucified on the day before that of
Saturn (Saturday) and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the
THE SABBATH DAY. 651
day of the sun, having appeared to his apostles and disciples, he
taught them."
Barnabus, at the close of the first century, writes, "Where-
fore we keep the eighth day with joyfulness."
Eusebius, A. D. 270, in book 4, chapter 23, quoting Dionysius, says :
"Today we have passed the Lord's holy day, in which we have read
your epistle," and in chapter 26 he mentions a work written, by
Melito, entitled, "On the Lord's day." This book was then extant,
but is now lost.
Hilary, A.D. 360, writes: "On the Lord's day Christians enjoy
the felicity of a perfect Sabbath."
St. Ignatius, the pupil of St. John, in A. D. 107, in his epistle
to the Magnesians, 8, 9, 10, writes: "Be not deceived with
strange doctrines nor with old fables, which are unprofitable, for
if we still continue to live according to Jewish law, we do con-
fess ourselves not to have received grace; for even the most holy
prophets lived according to Jesus Christ Wherefore, if they
who were brought up in these ancient law3 come nevertheless to
the newness of hope, no longer observing Sabbaths, but keeping
the Lord's day Wherefore, being become his disciples, let us
learn to live according to the rules of Christianity Lay aside,
therefore, the old and sour and evil leaven; and be ye changed into
the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ It is absurd to name
Jesus Christ and to Judaize."
Tertullian, A.D. 200, says: "We celebrate Sunday as a joyful
day."
In the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, written in the first
or second century, the genuineness of which is universally admit-
ted, we find, in chapter 14: "But on the Lord's day do ye assemble
and break bread and give thanks, after confessing your transgres-
sions, in order that your sacrifice may be pure. But every one
that hath controversy with his friend, let him not come together
with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be
profaned."
Bede, our own Anglo-Saxon historian, A. D., 664, book 3,
chapter 25, writing of Easter day and St. John the Revelator,
says: "And when that day came, if the Lord's day, then called the
first after the Sabbath"
652 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
Clement, Origen and others, all offer evidence to the same ef-
fect. This cumulative evidence of the early Christian writers is con-
firmed by a heathen writer, Pliny, governor of Bithynia, who, in a let-
ter written to Trajan, the then emperor of Rome, about A. D. 103,
says, referring to the Christians: "They meet on a certain stated
day, before it is light, and address themselves in a form of prayer
to Christ, as to some god." A certain stated day — not the Jewish
Sabbath, with which Pliny was acquainted; but they met on a day
peculiar to the Christian faith. Paul says, Hebrews 4:4: "Again
he limiteth a certain day."
It is claimed by some that the Christian fathers and early
writers were heretics, and that their testimony is not to be re-
ceived; but when we read in their histories and writings that the
primitive church held and practiced certain things, and we find
the same things taught in the inspired word, then we are entitled
to rely on such historic records, and receive their testimony as to
what the church held and practiced in their day, without being
compelled to receive as sound doctrine all that they individually
teach or their application of scripture proofs. Dr. Pusey, in his
preface to the Oxford Library of the Fathers, says: "We become
assured that we know what was the Apostolic doctrine, when we
have the agreement of early and independent witnesses as to that
doctrine."
Mosheim, 1 cent., part 2, chapter 4, sec. 4, sums up this part
of the argument thus: "There are certain laws whose authority
and < bligations were universal and indispensable among Christians.
All Christians were unanimous in setting apart the first day of the
week on which the triumphant Savior arose from the dead, for the
solemn celebration of public worship. This custom was derived from
the example of the church of Jerusalem, was founded upon the
express appointment of the apostles, and was observed universally
by all the Christian churches, as appears from the united testimony
of the most credible writers."
Mrs. White, a writer on this subject, in Great Controversy,
page 55, says: "Satan tampered with the fourth commandment
also, and essayed to set aside the ancient Sabbath, and in its
stead exalt the festival observed by the heathen as the venerable
day of the sun. Constantine, while still a heathen, issued a decree
THE SABBATH DAY. 653
enjoining the general observance of Sunday as a public festival
throughout the Roman empire. A few years after the issue of
Constantine's decree (about A. D. 320) the Bishop of Rome con-
ferred on Sunday the title of the Lord's day; still the origi-
nal Sabbath was kept. The observance of Sunday as a Chris-
tian institution has its origin in the mystery of lawlessness."
She calls the Lord's day "a child of the papacy;" but does
not cite the Bible or early church history to prove it. On
the contrary, John, in A. D. 96, calls the first day of the week,
"Sabbaton," in his gospel 20: 1 and 19, and "Lord's day" in his
book of Revelations, 1 : 10. Yet Mrs. White endeavors to convey the
impression that Constantine was the author of the Christian Sab-
bath, and the Pope the inventor of the term "Lord's day."
She readily accepts the Roman Catholic claim to priority of inven-
tion or -copyright in the name, but the Protestant world rejects
arguments founded on a falsification of history, as vigorously as
it refuses to acknowledge Peter as the first pope of Rome.
The law of Moses was full of types and signs of the coming
of the promised Savior, the Messiah. The feast of Pentecost was
one of these types, and foreshadowed the redeeming offering of
Christ himself. We find in Acts 2: 1 that "When the day of Pen-
tecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place."
It may be asked, on what day of the week did this particular feast
occur, so full of important events in relation to the establishment
of the church of Jesus Christ? It was the first day of the week,
known later as the "Lord's day," or Sunday. Our subject leads
us to inquire as to the origin and symbolical meaning of this feast
of Pentecost. A reference to Leviticus 23: 10 shows Moses speak-
ing to the children of Israel, when giving directions in respect to
the feast of harvest, as follows: "When ye come into the land
which I giv<* unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then
ye shall bring a sheaf of the fruits of your harvest unto the
priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be ac-
cepted for you. On the morrow after the Sabbath, the priest
shall wave it, and ye shall offer that day, when ye wave the sheaf,
an he lamb without blemish of the first year, for a burnt offering
unto the Lord,"
From this we learn, first, that the wave offering was made on the
654 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
day after a particular Sabbath, thus making it the eighth or first day
of the week; second, that the lamb was typical of Christ and his death
and resurrection on the first day of the week; third, that the wave
offering was typical of the harvesting of the souls of men. "But
now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of
them that slept" (I Cor. 15: 20).
In the same chapter in Leviticus we find Moses directing the
people as follows: "Ye shall count unto you from the morrow after
the Sabbath, from the day ye brought the sheaf of wave offering,
seven Sabbaths shall be complete" — viz., forty-nine days — "even
unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, shall ye number fifty
days, and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord." We
find that the ascension of our Lord took place on the fortieth day
after his resurrection — on a Thursday. Ten days later, viz., the fif-
tieth day from the resurrection "Sabbaton,"was the day of Pentecost,
that being the morrow after the seventh Sabbath from the waving
of the sheaf. On this first day of the week, or Sunday, therefore,
when the Jews were gathered together in the temple, offering a new
meat offering unto the Lord, the disciples, in accordance with
Christ's command, "that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father," were found with one ac-
cord in one place, gathered together for their weekly service of
prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. Then the promise was fulfilled,
"and suddenly there a came sound and they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost Now when this was noised abroad, the
multitude (including, no doubt, many Jews from the temple) came
together." This was the first day of the week, or Sunday, and it com-
memorated not only the resurrection, or harvesting of the souls of
men, but also, the opening up of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit.
Objection is sometimes made that the first day of the week
is also called the eighth day of the week; it should cause no dis-
putation. It is a mere question of excluding or including the first
day in the reckoning. In Leviticus 23: 35, we find: "On the first day
shall be a holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein.
Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord,
on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you." In Num-
bers 29: 35: "On the eighth day ye shall have a solemn assembly."
In II Chronicles 7: 9. "And in the eighth day they made a solemn
THE SABBATH BAY. 655
assembly;" and in Nehemiah 8: 18: "And they kept the feast seven
days, and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly," a Sabbath,
typical of the Christian Sabbath.
It is submitted that the foregoing fact3 constitute a chain of
evidence, every link of which is perfect, and they substantiate the
following propositions:
1. That Adam and his descendants down to the time of Moses
were in possession of, and lived under the gospel of Jesus Christ.
2. That no Sabbath law was given prior to the time of Moses.
3. That i t was given as a sign between God and the children
of Israel, and as a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ.
4. That the Sabbath law was not an organic or immutable law.
5. That Christ had authority to change it.
6. That Christ did change it, and gave authority to his apostles
to make such changes in the law as the Holy Ghost might indicate.
7. That in the original Greek text of the Bible the last day
of the week and first day of the week are both called "Sabbaton,"
or Sabbath.
8. That the first day of the week is called the Lord's day,
both by St. John and the early apostolic fathers, and this some
250 years, prior to the time of Constantine, A.D. 325.
9. That the Feast of Pentecost fell on the first day of the week,
and that the disciples did not take any part in the Jewish temple ser-
vices on that day, but were "with one accord in one place," hold-
ing their own services of prayer, praise and thanksgiving, as di-
rected by Christ himself.
10. That the terms first and eighth day of the week were syn-
onymous and interchangeable.
11. That so far as Latter-day Saints are concerned, no dis-
pute can arise, the Lord having declared his mind and will, as re-
corded in section 59:9-12 of the Doctrine and Covenants:
"Verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your
labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High. Neverthe-
less thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days, and
at all times. But remember that on this, the Lord's day, thou
shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High,
confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord."
Provo, Utah.
THE SEA GULLS AND THE CRICKETS.
(For the Improvement Era.)
With promise of abundant yield
Lay ev'ry garden, ev'ry field,
A smiling 'neath the summer sun,
Where pioneers a home had won.
Above, the Wasatch towered in might:
Below, the Great Salt Lake was bright:
And o'er the foothills far away
The sage brush spread its sombre gray,
To where the opalescent blue
Of distant ranges closed the view.
The parched desert ne'er had known
A harvest where the seed was sown:
And carefully each precious seed
By faith was sown in time of need:
For, weary months of want had worn
Away each scanty store of corn,
And yet a thousand miles of plain
Lay in between the fields of grain
There by Iowa's hill and dale,
And these new grain fields of the vale.
On bulbs and roots, on fish and game, —
Awaiting till the harvest came, —
From nature's storehouse spread around,
Full many their subsistence found;
Yet naught man's appetite has led
Away from yearning for his bread;
THE SEA GULLS AND THE CRICKETS. 657
And hope of harvest filled each breast
Within these new homes of the West.
No thought of danger lurking near
Aroused a dream or qualm of fear:
And e'en where poverty held sway
Contentment ruled each happy day:
And toil and thrift, gave hope full cheer
With its reward of harvest near.
Then, mustered by some evil head —
A foe to fill the homes with dread —
From out the foothills all along
The crickets swept, a countless throng,
The verdure lay before them green,
Behind 'twas like a fire-swept scene.
And as thev neared the fields of grain
The settlers fought them might and main,
Till unavailing efforts gave
The proof that none their crops could save.
In many a trouble, doubt and care,
The Saints had learned the power of prayer;
In many an answer God had given,
They learned to put their trust in Heaven;
And solemn prayers of deep distress
Arose then in the wilderness,
And God was asked, while faith held sway,
To drive the hordes of foes away,
Aad save the crops, by his strong hand,
To keep a famine from the land.
Lo! then, a wonder in the skies
To them glad vision brought surprise!
Above the low horizon's bound,
With wings all fluttering round and round,
In cloud-like flocks, the sea gulls flew,
In their migration strange and new;
And myriads over all the land,
As if they came at God's command,
Sought for the crickets, as was meet,
€58 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
And ate as though compelled to eat,
And ate, disgorged, and ate, till then
Disgorged, they ate, and ate again;
Till, at the sunset, they took flight,
And o'er the lake passed out of sight.
Again, each morning they returned,
As i^about the task concerned
Of clearing all the land so clean
That not a cricket could be seen.
The birds were tame. 'Twas very clear
Of men they yet had formed no fear: .
They came about the cottage door,
'Mid scenes unknown to them before,
And children played with them in glee,
Yet left them undisturbed and free.
And to this day, the Saints believe
The sea gulls came here to achieve
A rescue from impending woes
Of famine, that these insect foes
Most surely would have made, that day,
Had not God's power swept them away.
And so the law's protecting care
Gives to the gulls an ample share;
And gratitude we give most fair
These winged pilgrims of the air.
J. L. Townsend.
Payson,JUtah.
A MOTHER'S LETTERS TO HER MISSIONARY
SON.
EDITED BY SUSA YOUNG GATES.
V.— WORK AND STUDY IN THE FIELD.
My Dear Son Daniel: — Your letter reached us, and gave us
great joy. The girls are writing all the home news to you, so I am
going to try and answer some of your questions. You ask first
how you are to study the gospel. You say you have looked over
the various books your father gave you treating on the gospel,
and its various principles, but you don't seem much interested in
them.
Now, I am rather glad you feel just as you do; for, although
one can always get some help from commentaries on the scripture,
both ancient and modern, yet commentaries are always of ques-
tionable value to the young student. For this reason: You must
studv the scriptures, not what is said about them by somebody.
The Lord has always provided his people with scripture, that is,
with a written record of his dealings with his people; also the
prophecies and translations given to his ordained servants. Mor-
mon tells us of the apostasy of the descendants of Zarahemla, and
gives as one strong reason that they had no scripture among
them. The word of the Lord is a peculiar thing. I might com-
pare it to the look in the eyes of your father's oil painting; no
matter what part of the room you go to, the eyes seem to be look-
ing directly at you. It is so with a revelation; no matter in what
age a person may live, in what circumstance or condition he
may be, the words revealed by the Spirit of the Lord, and written
660 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
under his authority, bear a peculiarly applicable meaning for his
soul, whoever and whatever he may be. You recall what the
Lord said to some high and mighty preachers in the early days of
the Church, as recorded in the sixty-seventh section of the Doctrine
and Covenants. They had been trying to use eloquent language to
confound the youthful and uneducated prophet, ard the Lord re-
bukes them by telling them to seek for the least of the revelations,
and then try to write one like unto it; if they cannot, they are for-
ever after to hold their peace. And they certainly could not.
Any one who understands literary style will tell you there is a vast
difference in the wording of the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine
and Covenants, and, again, both are unlike the style in which
Joseph himself spoke and wrote. Yet all are simple, necessarily,
as the medium, Joseph, through which they all are given, was a
simple, clear-brained youth, without an involved nature or speech.
Therefore, study the scriptures. Read them. You read the
Bible and Book of Mormon through in your early boyhood; but
that was mostly to please your father and to earn the books which
he gave you when you had finished. Now read them both through
carefully; then read the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of
Great Price through in the same way. When you have finished
them, begin over again with the Bible, and read them all over
again. And again, and again, as long as you live. Never think
that the time will come when you can lay them aside. If it does,
woe be to you. Orson Pratt, great and lofty thinker and philoso-
pher that he was, was once asked why it was that he seemed so
familiar with every passage in the Book of Mormon. He answered
in his diffident, modest way, that after inquiring, he found that he
had read the book through sixty-seven times more than any one
else he had known of.
There is a notion prevalent that one need only read those
parts of the Bible or other scripture that pertain to any subject
one may be studying. Don't be led off by any such idea. If you
are to be a full man in Christ Jesus, you must put on his whole
armor. Not a patch nere and a scrap there. I have heard some
young returned elder9 who could say little when called upon for a
report, unless they switched off onto the first principles of the
gospel, which had evidently been their sole thought and talk while
A MOTHER'S LETTERS TO HER MISSIONARY SON. 661
away. And even that could have been forgiven, for it was but
natural, only that when called upon a second time, the same little
talk on faith or baptism was given, and one could tell it was one
of the few sermons prepared and given constantly while away.
Avoid all such cut and dried work. Shun form and cant, as you
would atrophy and petrification in any form.
You will, of course, be set to preach the first principles of
the gospel; that is the message of warning you are called to de-
liver. Christ gave that injunction to his former apostles, just be-
fore leaving them after his resurrection, and he repeats this in-
junction through Joseph Smith. But you need not take anything,
anybody, nor any book, except the scriptures themselves, for a
guide. Go to the Lord in fasting and prayer. Oh, remember the
mighty blessings that we have received in this family through
fasting; don't go to the extremes, for extremes are seldom wise.
But when you want a special gift or powers, make a special effort.
The foundation of the British mission was laid by Heber C. Kim-
ball, and Brigham Young, in mighty fasting and prayer. And in
your day the splendid work done in the Southern States by a son
of Heber C. Kimball, the effects of which spread to every mission,
was done in great seasons of fasting and prayer. In this, how-
ever, always be willing to be guided by those who are over you.
It is better to be obedient to counsel, than to fast, if there must
come a choice.
Then, if you desire to study the subject of faith, for instance,
look into your own heart, and see what faith means to you. Cast
about for your own impressions, your own feelings, and your
own conclusions. Do not follow anybody's lead, nor copy any-
body's expressions or thoughts. Better a thousand times a poor,
stumblingly expressed idea of your own, than the most carefully
worded and eloquent plea or argument filched or borrowed from
some other speaker or writer. Do be original; not cranky nor
peculiar, but be yourself. For this reason, I would prefer that
you should not open one of the various books on the study of the
gospel which you have, until you have been at your work at least
a year. When you have got your own "thinking apparatus" in
good running order, you can then safely, and perhaps profitably,
662 IMPROVEMENT ERA
dip into other people's "thinking tanks," as Josh Billings calls
them. But go to the Bible itself.
Try to put yourself in the place of a person who knows noth-
ing about the truth. Such a one would ask you what you mean
by repentance, by faith, and by baptism. What do you mean?
President Lorenzo Snow once said that the very best mission-
aries were those who never thought a moment about themselves,
but always about others. Don't allow a thought about yourself,
the impression you are making upon others, or the language you
are using, to enter your mind. Think of the person you are talk-
ing with. Remember that your message of the truth may be the
only one he will ever hear. And in the morning of the resurrec-
tion, he may confront you, if you failed to warn him, and ask you
why you did not deliver the word to him while you had the oppor-
tunity. Be earnest, be diligent, and oh, be wise.
Be wise! Do not attack those not of our faith, nor denounce
their religion. President Young once advised missionaries not to
tear down people's houses of religion about their ears, but to build
up the true and beautiful one before their eyes, and then invite
them to enter, leaving their own tumble-down creeds to go to
natural decay.
Approach everyone with gentleness. Don't argue. Discus-
sions rarely do any good. Offer your own truths, listen quietly to
what objections may be offered, and answer them if you can, but
go no further.
Study how to approach people. The best, first and last lesson
in this art is to try and think of the person and how to interest
and please him. Don't tell him he is all wrong, and you are all
right, for you have then antagonized him, and you cannot again
approach him, perhaps.
On the other hand, don't act or feel afraid to say who and
what you are, and what is your message.
Learn true humility. Humility is not cringing nor slavish-
ness. But it partakes of a sense of unworthiness, and is made up
of a realization of our own weakness and our dependence on the
Lord.
There are other questions to answer, but this must suffice for
the present.
A MOTHER'S LETTERS TO HER MISSIONARY SON. 663
All join in love. Mattie was here today, and I read your last
letter to her. She wants to be remembered to you.
Your father says to tell you not to spend too much time
reading the home papers, six times, he says, laughingly, is enough.
For the more you read about home and think about it, the more
inclined you will be to get homesick.
Love always ffom
Your Mother.
Salt Lake City, Utah.
BE THANKFUL FOR THE SHADOWS.
(For the Improvement Era.)
Why should we ask the Father
For only days of light?
When the clouds have cleared away,
The sun shines forth more bright.
If God sends only sunshine,
Our sight may grow so dim,
We cannot see the pathway
To follow after him.
Walk through a flower garden,
Which blossoms there first fade?
Those where the sun is brightest,
Not those at times in shade.
Be thankful for the shadows
As well as for the Fght,
Lest through excessive brightness,
The soul receive a blight.
Grace Ingles Frost.
Salt Lake City, Utah,
AM I CONVERTED, AND IF SO, HOW MUCH?
BY DR. JAMES X. ALLEN.
"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." — (Matt. 18: 3.)
This short talk is intended for the young men in Zion, for
whom I have, in my heart, the very warmest regard. On them
depends, in great measure, not only their personal salvation, but
also that of their coming families, and, perhaps, many others yet
unborn.
It is customary with us to quote many and varied authorities
to substantiate' the lesson presented. For my part, I consider one
first-class authority to be preferable to a number of weaker ones.
Not all authorities are of equal weight and force in sustaining
the position taken by a teacher. Some men are more spiritually
minded than are others. Some good teachers have a little too
much of the earthiness in their composition; and it is questionable
whether the worldly mind and the spiritual mind can each attain
to anything like perfection when dwelling in one and the same
habitat. "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."
Men of scientific training differ in their interpretation of the
same phenomenon; so, also, do good men differ in their reading of
the same passage of holy writ. Men's minds vary in constitution,
and, therefore differ in their interpretation of the same divine im-
pression on their mentality.
God drops from the clouds pure snow and rain upon our
mountains for our comfort and for our needs. But, although the
water reaches us through the naturally ordained channels, it is
not pure water when it comes to us; it is, more or less, impreg-
AM I CONVERTED? 665
nated with the minerals through which it has percolated in its
downward course. Such is the case with the inspiration of the
divine Spirit. The strata of rocks are not more varied in their
mountain beds than are the constitutions and conditions of men's
minds through whom divine truths necessarily must percolate be-
fore they reach us.
Several men may be impressed with the same divine inspira-
tion, but, in all probability, no two of them will interpret it ex-
actly alike. Each interpretation will be tinctured, to some extent,
with the characteristics of the mind that gives it form and ex-
pression.
These thoughts have induced me to select for this lesson the
dictum of the Master, whose word is yea and amen — the end of
controversy.
By reading over the text quoted above, you will perceive that
there is no if, no but, no modification, whatever, — "except ye be
converted, and become as little children," etc. Conversion is im-
perative. Would it not be well for each one of us to examine
ourselves occasionally and try and find out how far we are con-
verted? The most of us assent to the existence of an All Father,
to che godship of his Son Jesus Christ, and to the divinity of the
mission of Joseph Smith, the prophet, seer, and revelator. This
much of a conversion is almost universal in our Y. M. M. I. Asso-
ciations. But the vital question is, Are we exemplifying their
teachings in our every- day life?
We know that there are degrees in faith, degrees in repent-
ance; and degrees in honesty, truthfulness, sobriety, honor, and
in brotherly love; and there are degrees of glory in the after life,
so we are told. But, let me ask you, do you want a partial salva-
tion? Can we, in all conscience, hope for a full salvation with the
Father and the Son when our conversion has been but partial? I
think not. "And he shall reward every man according to his
works."
One brother with whom I lately conversed, is seldom seen in
our meetings. When I spoke to him about his absence, on a cer-
tain occasion, he answered: "0! religion does not consist in go-
ing to meeting." The answer was true enough. But we know
666 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
that it is most natural for a man to seek the society of those hav-
ing similar likings, aspirations, and interests to his own.
If I am seeking "first the kingdom of God and his righteous-
ness," shall I not find most profit and pleasure in communing with
those whose aims and objects in life are the same as my own?
Certainly. Therefore, we say that "a man is known by the com-
pany he keeps."
Recently I heard a brother discussing the supposed uses to
which tithing is put. I could not help asking him, "Are you a
tithe payer?" His reply was, "No; I am not, I don't believe in pay-
ing tithing," etc., etc. This brother prefessed to be converted.
Was his conversion a full or a partial one? And in this way we
may, were it necessary, examine many of the laws and counsels
obligatory upon the Saints, and find that many of us are but par-
tially converted. We are converted as far as we fullv believe,
and our belief is exemplified in our daily walk and conversation;
and our apostasy is in proportion to our loss of conviction. One
will say: "I have a mind of my own, and no man can control and
tell me what I shall do, and how much I shall pay," etc.
"And become as little children." Little children are teach-
able, leadable, not egotistic, setting themselves up as instructors
of their parents and teachers. Having accepted the gospel as a
system given by God for our salvation, may we not safely accept
it in all its details (as little children) ?
How much am I converted? May God grant us a full conver-
sion and a full and complete salvation.
Ogden, Utah.
IMPRESSION VS. EXPRESSION.
BY ERNEST M. HALL, B. A., EDITOR OF THE "CRIMSON," BRIGHAM
YOUNG COLLEGE.
It is not my intention to attempt a philosophic discussion of
this subject, but simply to voice a few thoughts which I have
gathered upon this timely theme. If, perchance, I say something
which will cause someone to give expression to the hope that is
within him, then this endeavor will not have been in vain.
As soon as a child learns to talk, it is impressed, by its par-
ents, with the idea that "children should be seen and not heard.''
This old-time maxim is evidently absurd. It is contrary to nature
and opposed to law for a bright, active child to sit as quietly as
the wax doll with which it plays. It is as natural for the little
girl or boy to romp and play, laugh, dance, and be noisy, as it is
for the rose to bloom or for the meadow-lark to greet the rising
sun with his cheerful song.
The flowers of the field are under no restrictions, but follow
perfectly the life which God has given them. They receive the
impressions from sunshine and shower, from morning zephyr and
evening dew, and in a short time, give expression, as Nature in-
tended, in the form of daisy, buttercup, and violet. All is done in
harmony and the result is perfection.
Likewise, the birds show their appreciation for sunshine and
warmth. Scarcely have their feathers dried, after the shower,
than the sweet songsters burst forth in such strains of rippling
melody that the earth becomes a paradise.
How readily all nature responds to impressions of light, heat,
and moisture ! As soon as the April showers have passed, and the
668 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
genial warmth of the May sun is felt, grass springs up in the
meadow, the trees are in full leaf, the birds are singing their
merriest melodies, and even the frogs add their song to the music
of the meadows. The air is full of perfumes and pipings, and the
purple halo of the distant mountains makes a fitting background
for this charming prospect.
It remains for man, blessed with intelligence and freedom of
will, to thwart the laws of his nature and to act like the sponge,
ever assimilating and absorbing, retaining all good things for him-
self and casting off only that which is bad. Man should follow
more closely in the path of nature. Instead of behaving as God's
noblest creation, he is too often unresponsive, unsympathetic, and
reserved. He breathes in the bracing air of the spring morning,
the fragrance of violet, rose, and geranium. He sees beauty on
every side, yet passes on in silence. He would not let a fellow-
creature know that he felt these things — no, he must keep them
for himself. They were made for him, and he will enjoy them
alone. How selfish, how cold, how unfeeling this is! Why not
give expression to these feelings of inspiration? Point out to a
companion the beautiful colors and the delightful odors of the
flowers, and your friend who, probably, sees more beauty in the
birds and busy bees, will have you enjoy things which you had
passed by unobserved. Thus your pleasure is doubled and your
friend has forgotten his troubles to praise the goodness of God.
What should we think of the artist who could paint inspiring
landscapes and beautiful faces, yet who never touched brush to
canvas, a man who had splendid visions of form and color, but
who chose to dream them in solitude? What should we think of
a Milton who could write such a poem a3 "Paradise Lost," and yet
who buries his sublime thoughts in the recesses of a shriveled
soul? What sentence should we pass on a Daniel Webster who
might electrify the nation with his eloquence and cause the Senate
to hang breathless on his words, yet who allowed his great talents
to slumber?
Let us not pass judgment too hastily, however. Let us first
examine ourselves, and see if we are not thinkers of great thoughts
and doers of little deeds. Are we not capable of enriching the
world with our actions, and gladdening the hearts of our friends
IMPRESSION VS. EXPRESSION. 669
with love? Are we not in the habit of placidly absorbing and as-
similating without a ripple of expression or action?
We believe that when we have attended college for a few
years, digested a score of text books, listened to a dozen lectures,
and absorbed the atmosphere of classic halls, we are educated.
This is only half. An educated man is not always one who has
disturbed the ghosts of dead languages, who has reveled in math-
ematical formulas, or who has studied the technique of art. He
is sometimes the man who can cast strands of steel across the
Mississippi and build a highway for trade, he is the one who can
curb the waters of Niagara and convert their power into electricity,
he is the one who can animate the heart of the student and cause
him to seek after truth; in short, he is the man who can do some-
thing.
To illustrate the dire results which follow lack of expression,
I shall refer to an article entitled, "White Slavery in the South,"
by Elbert Hubbard, in which is pointed out the conditions existing
in South Carolina,where child labor is employed in the large cotton
mills. Children of six years and upwards are compelled to work
from six in the morning until seven at night. These little toddlers
pace up and down for the entire day, in their bare feet, watching
the spindles of cotton-thread revolving on frames twenty feet in
length. The threads are always breaking, and the little toilers
have no chance for rest. They are forbidden to speak with one
another, and if they were not, the tremendous din of the machinery
would make it impossible.
And what are the results of this child slavery? Inside of
four years, these tiny plodders find rest in the grave. It takes
but a few months after entering the mill for a child to lose his
memory, for him to forget the mother whose smiles and caresses
gladdened his heart but a short time before. After he has worked
there a year, it is impossible for him to learn to read, he has lost
all desire to play, and he can never develop into manhood. When
work is over he falls into a sleepy stupor, and when awake, looks
at you through glassy eyes, which have a dreamy, stupid, inanimate
expression. The little worker weighs about thirty- five pounds, he
shrinks from your caresses, and makes no response to your smile.
Referring to the cause of these terrible conditions, Hubbard
670 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
says: "The reason that thought flags and stupor takes possession
of the child who works at one task for eleven hours a day, is
through the fact that he does not express himself. We grow
through expression, and expression, which is exercise, is necessary
to life."
As students and teachers, we think too much, and express too
little. We are constantly drinking in, and but seldom opening our
hearts that the feelings may flow out. We are too stern and im-
placable. We believe in cramming our minds with facts and pro-
found thoughts, but not in allowing others to profit bylour labors.
We fear criticism because much is expected of us. We remain
silent because the sound of our voice is strange. We learn so
much about grammar, composition and rhetoric, that we are afraid
to speak or write, lest we violate one of the manyjrules we have
learned.
By the time the student has become a college professor, his
mind is overflowing with impressions and thoughts which he has
been assimilating during years of studious toil. He has enough
material in cold storage to fill a good- sized encyclopaedia. His
brain is a veritable granary filled with the fruits of the harvest.
He is prepared to act, but no — he leaves the world of expression
and action. He wraps himself in the profundity of his own
thought, and goes into a state of hibernation; not like the bear,
for six months, but, perhaps, for the remainder of his days.
Professor James says: "No reception without reaction, no
impression without correlative expression. * * * An impres-
sion which simply flows in at the student's eyes or ears, and in no
way modifies his active life, is an impression gone to waste."
Another writer says: "We grow through expression, and the
large colleges, even yet, afford a very imperfect means for expres-
sion— all is impression and repression and suppression." This is
undoubtedly true. We love to dream, we love to recline in the
shade of balmy trees, while our minds explore the universe of the
unreal. We delight to revel in the grandeur of our "castles in
Spain," while our neighbor across the way builds him a mansion of
brick and stone. We rejoice in the dream of the golden age to
come, but we allow our dreams to float away in mist. The dream-
er is like the rain from heaven, which only asks the sun of expres-
IMPRESSION VS. EXPRESSION. 671
sion to reveal its rainbow of beauty. The thinker is a diamond
in the rough, which requires only to be polished to give expression
to the splendor within.
The world needs the man who can think well, but she wor-
ships the man who can both think and act. James Watt became
impressed by the boiling of the tea-kettle. Today the whistle of
the locomotive, and the puff of the steam engine, are the ex-
pressions of that thought. Marconi dreamed of sending messages
through the ether, and now the crippled ship on the broad Atlan-
tic calls for help, and her cry is answered. Edison saw the flash
of the electric spark, and utilized its energy, until today the bril-
liancy of the electric light rivals the splendor of the noonday sun.
Yesterday the master minds of this age thought of connecting
two mighty oceans. In consequence of that idea, tomorrow we
shall sail through the Isthmian canal. Man looked into the
heavens and wondered at the mysteries of the universe. He
thought, and that thought found expression in the modern spectro-
scope. Now he takes a ray of light from the milky way and reads
the story of the stars.
These and many other things man has done by mixing thought
and^action, by combining impression and expression. What things
man will yet do, are in the realms of the infinite.
God has blessed us with many talents; he has granted us wis-
dom and power; he has given us light and intelligence; he has
honored us with the privilege of eternal progression. Let us,
then, use the great talents that have been given us, for the en-
lightenment of man and for the glorification of God.
"Act in the living Present!
Heart within and God o'erhead!
"Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing;
Learn to labor and to wait!"
Logan, Utah.
THE ROYAL DIPLOMA:— A TALE OF A
PIONEER.
(For the Improvement Era.)
I.
This is the place: not sixty years ago its only occupants
Were the lawless aborigines, and warring elements,
An uninhabitable spot it was, of all incentive shorn,
Save the thousand dollars offered for the first ripe ear of corn.
As we view the situation, in the sun's fast fading gleam,
E'er the world is given o'er to night, to darkness and to dream,
While we take the benediction of these salt sea atmospheres.
To imagination give your minds, and lend to me your ears: —
II.
There's a narrative which tells, that somewhere down the flight of years,
From the eastern range of mountains, came a band of pioneers;
Here they found immunity from their unmerited distress,
In the tacit invitation of the barren wilderness.
There, where dips the horizon, and where those rival mountains break,
With a restless tributary plunging to the sunset lake;
That stoic band ('twere but a handful) issued from the mountain
trails; —
But to paint it true to nature e'en the pen of genius fails.
From the annals of all history, parallel it if you can;
Every mile a sore affliction, every soul a faithful man.
Poor wherein the world is richest: glory, pomp, and gold and fame;
But rich wherein the world is poorest: faith, works and exalted aim, —
Nothing could have quelled their anguish, short of an eternal hope,
As they viewed the situation from the sandy mountain slope:
Burning villages behind them, and ahead the burning sand,
THE ROYAL DIPLOMA. 673
Everywhere the proposition of an unproductive land.
But a miracle has come among us, since those days of yore,
And a garden sweeps the valley, that was wilderness before,
Save where yonder peaks write their antiquity against the skies,
Everywhere the land looks up through half a century's disguise;
Ostracized for conscience' sake, that zealous, patriotic band,
Gave this blossoming oasis to this western sea of sand.
III.
One of those congenial spirits 'twere my privilege to know, —
,A celebrated pioneer of more than fifty years ago;
After many a weary season of privation and of toil,
After many a long, victorious wrestle with the stubborn soil,
Yonder, to a southern village, in a crescent of the hills,
Shaded by a grove of maples, watered by a dozen rills,
He retired, and with his large experience in a world of strife,
He was qualified to live and magnify "The Simple Life."
In his critical survey of self, (and he was often tried)
Many a virtue disappeared, his weaknesses were magnified.
Like a monument he stood down to the infancy of age,
And the little town grew famous for its wisdom and its sage.
At the sunset hour of life, I saw him quietly go down,
As I now behold Orion, dropping to the horizon.
Oft on summer evening, by the aromatic breezes fanned,
As we watched the crawling shadow roll across the fading land,
Sometimes rambling along the undulating valley scope,
Through alternate sun and shadow stealing down the mountain slope,
I have listened to his story with an undivided ear —
To the versatile experience of his earlier career.
His great soul was a mirror, and in it many a scene was cast,
As it turned toward the morning and reflected all the past;
There I saw the image of a rapidly maturing youth,
Full of noble aspirations, warping to the living truth.
Oft I saw him but to glorious defeat compelled to yield,
In the long unequal struggle on the human battlefield.
There the future was reflected, like a mighty prophecy,
And I saw the battle finished with a final victory.
First and chief est of the resolutions of his early prime,
As he looked upon the growing possibilities of time,
Was in all collegiate honors one day to participate —
To bend his human destiny, and be master of his fate.
674 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
Then he was a restless dreamer, one of April's saplings,
Bursting in the bud of youth, and flowering to the truth of things.
His resolution, like the sudden changing of a water way,
Turned his early pilgrimage into another destiny.
In this dream of fame he lingered, harrowed with a strange unrest,
With the wild flame of a great ambition burning in his breast;
Dreaming of a gilded future, as a youthful dreamer can,
And his name forever written in the chronicles of man.
With the dream there came another, for his conscience was a rod,
That his name might first be written in the chronicles of God.
O'er the restless sea of life, and blazing in the early dawn,
Came the waves of opposition rolling from the horizon;
On„the sunny shore of youth, he dreamed of man7 a battle won,
Out upon the pathless flood, toward the golden, setting sun;
And he launched amid the breakers, wrestling in an endess strife,
Hurled by many an adverse current, far upon the sea of life.
Long he battled with old ocean, with heroic heart and arm,
Cleaving through the foaming waters, driving through the thunder-
storm.
Still the wave of opposition, plunging like a cataract,
Rising with each resolution, never ceased to beat him back.
So his effort was a failure (men were critics of his day),
And his bent age found him still a plodder of the common way;
Lost to opportunity, across the prairie land he came,
But the old desire within him, burned his bosom like a flame.
One summer's evening, as he sat in the shadow of the barn,
Lulled by the music of the rill that rippled through the yellow corn,
And leaning on his rusty hoe — companion of his destiny —
There came a dream, it was a key, unlocking life's great mystery.
In panorama he reviewed his versatile experience,
To him a picture rude indeed, so void of human excellence:
Down through the years his journey lay, inglorious and destitute;
Ahead, the very fates themselves stood, mountain-like and resolute.
And then a change came o'er his dream: his path adown the fading
years
Shone bright with gems of noble deeds, through magnifying atmos-
pheres,
As when the sun, at yonder peak, his cloak of golden glory furls,
Still leaves his long deserted path to glitter like a string of pearls.
He dreamed his oft-repeated prayer — a strain, beyond Apollo's art,
Rose echoing against the skies, and lo! he saw them roll apart,
THE ROYAL DIPLOMA. »;?.-,
Revealing to his startled vision heaven; and he thought he stood,
In the midst of a most brilliant and celestial multitude.
His humble cot a mansion rose, with many a stately dome and tower;
The landscape rolled away, amid alternate mirror, lawn and bower;
The mimic hills threw back the voice of a celestial jubilee;
The spacious halls re-echoed with the anthems of eternity.
Then, with all that learning gives of classic beauty to the face,
All that wisdom adds to dignity, that culture adds to grace,
Amid that bright assemblage, devoid of pomp, and without peers
In the mighty field of knowledge, and the mellowing of years,
Arose one of the multitude, at the mere sounding of whose name,
The great gulf of the universe seemed to re-echo with his fame.
In the eulogy he spoke, this humble man was magnified
To the eyes of many, "e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side."
On that summer's eve they gave to him a parchment, and it shone
Whiter than the driven snow, and radiant as the morning son;
And the old man gazed upon it, "wondrous art," he cried, "designed
By an Angelo! 'Tis a diploma of the royal kind!"
From that gilded page he read these lines, appropriate and terse —
A just, a jealously arranged, synopsis of his human course: —
IV.
"Judgment bar of God. Department: college of the human race.
"Issued to the souls of men, through merit and eternal grace.
"This certifies that he returns victorious from the mortal sphere,
"And, by inherent strength of soul, has won the titles added here: —
"Master of adversity. Stoic of the common rod.
"Liver of all human law. Doer of the word of God."
The old man went away that night, a journey whence he ne'er returned.
Into the eternal world, among the noble and the learned.
Comrades, come, and leave the region to the elements resigned!
To the arms of solitude, and to the moaning of the wind!
Theo. E. Curtis.
Salt Lake City. Utah.
A PROPHETIC DREAM.
BY LOU LEWIS.
Teyarroko, the Indian medicine man, tali of stature, with a
tread not unlike that of a panther, could not have felt more proud
than I, as I walked along the mountain passes toward my nook
near the river's side.
Perhaps it was Teyarroko, whom we met in the region of the
Pottawatamie tribes, near Mt. Pisgah, that had suggested to me
the idea of making medicines from herbs, for use in the camps of
the pioneers. And perhaps it was Wilda's naming me Teyarroko,
and my success in my enterprise, together with my big sombrero,
and sun- burned face, that caused me, almost unconciously, to im-
itate the bold, free air of an Indian chief.
And Wilda was my little Pocahontas, for so she looked,
with her dusky hair and dark eyes — eyes that had grown sightless!
Others, more romantic than I, would call her "The sweet songs-
tress of the woods," but to me she was just Wilda — Wilda that
could laugh and sing, though blind.
I can hear her now, as I stand here adding brush to the fire
which I have built under my still. Listen! She is coming along
the path which I so carefully made for her. and which she has be-
come accustomed to. She is singing her favorite song. Hear
her:
I slow the sail, unship the mast,
I wooed you long, but my wooing's past;
My paddle will lull you into rest,
Oh, drowsy wind of the drowsy west.
Sleep, sleep,
A PROPHETIC DREAM. 677
By your mountain, sleep,
Or down where the prairie grasses creep.
Now fold in slumber your laggard wings,
For soft is the song my paddle swings.
The sun is laughing across the sky,
Laughing while paddle, canoe and I,
Drift, drift,
Where the hills uplift
On either side of the current swift.
"Ah! where are you, Teyarroko?" she calls, and I run to met
her, lest she get too near the river's bank.
Taking her by the hand, I lead her to a moss-covered stone in
the shadow of a pine, where she can talk while I work, or listen to
the birds, the river, or the soughing of the winds.
"Have you nothing for me to do, brother? Must I sit here
always, empty-handed?" she asks.
And then I run along the bank to gather wild flowers which I
bring to her, and let them fall like a shower into her lap, saying,
"You may play with these, and after a while I shall have you
hold the bottles while I fill them with oil."
With an ecstatic "0, my!" she lifts up a double handful of
flowers and buries her face in them, drinking in their sweet per-
fume. And then she sits laughing and chatting while the great
copper kettle bubbles and boils, and hums a song of faith and
hope. You can almost hear it say, "It is coming, coming, com-
ing," and the steam passes on through the pipes which lead from a
wooden lid into a "bed bug" steamer, the best substitute for a
condenser that could be found in camp.
"What are you boiling?" asks Wilda.
"I have peppermint on now."
"And what will it make?"
"Essence of peppermint for Mrs. Weber's baby. They say it is
good for colic.
"You cured grandmother's rheumatism with oil of sage, didn't
you? 0, Leonard, why don't you cure my eyes, so that I can see?"
The little tanned fingers reach out to me till she stands by
my side, then in a burst of wild desire she cries,
678 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
"If I could only see, if I could only see! You say we're in
the Rocky mountains, and will soon reach the end of our journey;
and to think that it will always be a land of darkness to me. 0,
Teyarroko, can't you heal me? Believe that you can. Pray, and
God will inspire you. Oh, I know he will! I know he will!
She clings to me like a helpless child, and my whole being;
trembles with a mighty prayer, while the boiling kettle sings on
joyfully, hopefully, peacefully. My lips are close against her
smooth, innocent brow, and I murmur eagerly :
"Let the spirit of the saints fill our beings, and in close com-
munion with the Infinite, let us live so that the powers we crave
may be ours. Little girl, you have aroused a hope upon which is
staked my whole religion and future life; for why came we into
this barbarous wilderness, trusting, worshiping the God of mira-
cles, if not that we might obtain his power to make our own
works marvelous in the sight of men, marvelous because of the
truth, the light, the inspiration in them?"
"How much like a prophet you speak, and how your words
thrill me, Leonard. Now hand me the bottles, and pour in the es-
sence of peppermint, for I am sure it is done."
The bottles being filled I lead Wilda back to camp; and the
afternoon finds me wandering alone among the wild growths of
the hills, thinking thoughts like these:
"How else could I ever know or believe? What greater
testimony could I have of the truthfulness of the words spoken by
these men and women who are risking all the dangers of the plains
for their faith? Revelation! How beautiful is the gospel which
teaches us the way such a gift is obtained. What greater gift
could be given to man than that divine power to see eternal truth,
and to commune with heavenly beings?"
"I was but a lad of five when my own mother, whose influence
was no small factor among the cultured classes of her time, left
me in the hands of good natured Mrs. Ramone and joined the im-
mortals. I had fared well in the home of the Ram ones; Aunt
Harriet and Uncle Daniel, as I called them, had never shown any
partiality; I was treated as one of their own, and, being the same
age as their oldest son Myron, I found a companion that was
brother in every way, except through the same parentage. In a
A PROPHETIC DREAM. 679
great stampede that happened upon the plains, it was Uncle Dan-
iel who nearly lost his life in saving mine. And through a long
winter of illness, it was Aunt Harriet and little Wilda that nursed
me day and night. How I should like to repay them! I wonder
if that mother who dwells with the spirits immortal can breathe
intelligence from the unknown world, and help me to restore the
sight to Wilda's eyes?
"I sit down upon a bed of violets; my breath coming and go-
ing as though a great, vital, life-giving power had taken possession
of my mind and soul. Twice, thrice, I rise to go, and, twice,
thrice, the violets seem to call me back. Sweet violets, the ten-
derest of the flowers! Surely a God so full of purpose placed you
here for something more useful than to adorn the lonely forest!
Then, snatching up handful after handful, I carry them down to
the copper kettle, build a fire under them, and offer them up as a
sacrifice to a God of inspiration. Sitting with my face in my
hand, I watch the flames flicker and lick the sides of the kettle,
till the violets began to sing their farewell song. An hour passes;
the embers die down, the life of the violets has gone into a
strange essence, which I carefully put into bottles and cork
tightly, returning to camp just as twilight, like a spirit swathed
in some soft veil, goes creeping over the hills."
* ■ * * *
The morning dawns. The choir invisible seems to send forth
its- glad song upon the rays of light. There is joy bursting
forth from the throats of birds, and beauty from the flowers.
From her tent comes Wilda, like the goddess of justice, and as
beautiful to me as the daughter of Jephthah.
"This way;" and I guide her to a bit of green, take from her
eyes the bandage, and gently bathe her eyes.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"By the last mountain that we shall have to cross."
"Has it not been a long, wearisome journey? It has been
three years since we left our old farm in Pennsylvania."
"There! How do your eyes feel?"
"I think the ulcers are gone. Tie the bandage on again."
"Will you not try to open your eyelids first?"
680 1MPROVEMEN7 ERA.
"Not yet. Is this the seventh day since you began to bathe
them with that new oil?"
"Yes."
"Let us wait until the evening, the light might pain them too
much. Sit down here and talk until they call us to breakfast-
Do you believe in dreams?"
"I would not be a child of the pioneers if I did not. But all
people do not dream dreams that are inspirations."
"I am always dreaming things which seem almost like proph-
ecies. Do you remember a year ago, before the ulcers began to
come on my eyes, that I told you I dreamed of being so happy in
the bright sunlight, among the long grasses of a meadow, when a
big, black cloud arose and covered the sky, and all around me was
dark. Last night I had such a different dream. I thought a beau-
tiful city rose before my eyes. On one side a lake glistened like
gold beneath the sun, and toward the east and north rose terraced
hills covered with magnificent trees. Near the center, a place like
a temple stood. It wa3 called the Temple of Light, and those who
entered there were healed."
Rising to my feet impulsively, I cry, "Come, Wilda, and look
upon the future city of your dreams."
We climb the rugged mountain side, as did Moses to the sum-
mit of Sinai, to worship a God of revelation, mercy, love.
Almost tearing the bandage from her, "Look, Wilda, look!"
The eyelids tremble, open, close again — but her arms are
clasped around my neck: "Too much light," she cried in hysterical
joy. Then, lifting her head while I shade her face, I look into her
eyes, exclaiming,
"The true light, the divine light, has come, to you and to me
— eternal light!"
Salt Lake City, Utah.
A CLIMATE MODIFIER.
P.Y FRED J. PACK, B. S.
The subject of this discussion is a very old one, but, through
the recent investigations of some of our great thinkers, a profound
interest in it has been revived. It will be remembered that but a
few years ago Prof. Chamberlin, of the University of Chicago, pro-
posed the "Planetesimal Theory" of earth origin, in contradistinc-
tion to the time-honored "Nebular Theory" of LaPlace. It was
through a long series of experiments and deductions concerning
the properties of carbon dioxide that Prof. Chamberlin was led to
his conclusions in regard to earth genesis. And today many of
the greatest students of both the eastern and western continents
are gravely studying this problem, with the hope that here lies the
secret of many perplexing geological phenomena. We shall, how-
ever, confine our discussion chiefly to a consideration of the value
of carbon dioxide as a climate modifier, and shall touch but inci-
dentally upon the many other problems immediately associated.
From geological researches, the fact is well established that
climatic conditions have varied greatly in different periods of the
earth's history. For instance, during parts of the Carboniferous,
Tertiary, and other ages, the temperature was such that tropical
plants and animals flourished in the arctic regions; then succeed-
ing these seasons were periods of cold, when at least on two oc-
casions great ice- sheets stretched far down into the temperate
zones of today. Coincident with and corresponding to these were
periods of similar nature on the southern continents, thus proving
that the changes of temperature were such as to affect the entire
earth.
What is the cause of these remarkable changes of climate?
682 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
The ablest scholars of many generations tell us that as the carbon
dioxide content of the atmosphere increases or decreases the tem-
perature will correspondingly rise or fall. In other words, it serves
the purpose of a blanket to the earth. It is now our pleasant task
to discuss these points more fully, and verify the statements made.
To even the boy in tne grades there is no difficulty in distin-
guishing between the great ferns of the tropics and the lichens of
Greenland, and with little thought he is able to describe the nature
of the climate in which each grows. Let an individual be taken to
some equatorial region where vegetation grows in profusion. If
every sense, save that of sight, be taken from him, he will recog-
nize the general character of the climate of the country. Further,
let all living vegetation be destroyed, and still the accumulations
of leaves in the swamps and other favorable places will bear testi-
mony to him that plant life once flourished there under tropical
conditions. Even if these vegetable accumulations were buried
deep in the earth, the evidence remains the same. So it is when
we visit the regions of the far north. Even at the great latitude
of Spitzbergen the remains of plant life tell us in unmistakable
terms of the genial climate that once prevailed there. These oc-
currences are by no means exceptional, but are found distributed
over very wide aseas.
And what is the evidence from which we learn of the great
ice- sheets that once swept from the polar regions far into the
zones now temperate? Go, if you will, to some region of present
glaciers, say the valleys of the Alps, or better the coasts of Green-
land. There you will see the glaciers and glacial sheets at work,
slowly but surely planing off the elevations and filling up the minor
depressions. There are the morains at the termination of the ice,
dumped helter-skelter upon whatever may chance to be there.
The boulders and bed-rocks are scratched and furrowed, while the
latter are also rounded into great sheep-backs, so named from
their*appearance. Where the ice is confined to canyons, the latter
are carved out to the broad U shape, so characteristic of ice worn
regions, and in bold contrast to the narrow V shaped canyons of
stream erosion. The morainic material is often piled in such
places so that the natural drainage is dammed off, and lakes are
formed. In fact the entire topography of the country is so strik-
A CLIMATE MODIFIER. 683
ingly different from that of places wholly worn by water, that the
attention of even the most casual observer will be attracted there-
by. Evidences similar to these are found over nearly all latitudes,
higher than forty or fifty degrees; and when the ice- sheet had its
greatest extent, the countries now the home of the highest civili-
zation were covered with ice. This was the case with all of north-
ern Europe and many places in the southern parts of that conti-
nent. At the same time North America was covered on the west
coast to the 47th parallel, on the east coast to the 40th parallel,
and in the central part to the 37th. In most sections of the world,
too, we have found indications of this great ice age, as in Asia
Minor, the Himalayas, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and
many parts of South America. Geologists in general are inclined
to think that these glaciations were simultaneous over the whole
earth, and viewed from the standpoint of geology must have taken
place in very recent times.
It should be of special interest to readers of this article to
know that we have full and indisputable evidence of the former
existence of a glacier in Little Cottonwood canyon, Utah. No one
can make an examination of the conditions there and come away
other than profoundly impressed that it's existance was very, very
recent. Evidences of glaciation are also to be seen in the High
Plateau region, and at the head of Farmington canyon.
The reader must not get the impression that there has been
but one great change of climate in times past. Quite to the con-
trary, we are now coming to believe that these alternating periods
of heat and cold have recurred time and time again. Prof. Cham-
berlin would have us believe that life of the warm temperate types
prevailed in the arctic lands during the Middle Ordovisic, the
Middle Siluric, the Middle Carbonic, the Middle Cretacic, and the
Early Tertiary ages, and alternating with these were periods of
cold, when perhaps glaciation stretched far into the temperate
zones of today. (Journal oj Geology, Vol. VI, p. 619).
But perhaps the most notable feature connected with the ex-
tension of life into the polar regions is the marvelous equality of
temperature. It has been recently shown by White and Schuchert
that during the Potomac epoch an almost identical fauna and
flora flourished in the north of Greenland and in the eastern United
684 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
States. Bearing upon this subject, but speaking of another age,
Dana says: "The species living in the waters between the parallels
of 30 degrees and 40 degrees were in part the same with, or
closely related to, those that flourished between the parallels of 60
degrees and 80 degrees."
We cannot conceive of a simple increase of solar heat, dis-
tributed as it is today, as accounting for this wonderful equaliza-
tion of temperature. Under existing conditions, an increase of
temperature at the poles certainly means a corresponding increase
at the equator, but not so in times past. It appears that there
must have been some equalizing factor. And this, eminent physic-
ists, from the days of Tyndall to the present, encourage us to be-
lieve may be found in the critical item of carbon dioxide. It is
now a little more than fifty years since Tyndall suggested that
these periods of heat and cold might be dependent upon the
amount of this gas in the air. He had demonstrated in his labor-
atory that carbon dioxide has the peculiar competence of retain-
ing solar heat, while most of the other constituents of the atmos-
phere are insensible to it. But it appears that it was left to
Arrhenius to demonstrate that with a given increase of this gas in
the air there would be a correspondingly greater rise in tempera-
ture in the higher latitudes than near the equator. (London, Edin-
burgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine, 5th series, Vol. 41, p.
266, 1896). This was a great step toward the solution of the prob-
lem, and now it is believed that the only requirement necessary
to restore the genial climate of the Tertiary age is a simple in-
crease of carbon dioxide.
But let us approach this from another view point. Heat may
be conveyed from one object to another in three different ways,
conduction, convection, and radiation, in only the last of which we
are interested here. To illustrate this method of heat transference,
we shall use the following: I am now sitting beside a steam radia-
tor. I place my hand upon it: it is uncomfortably warm. I hold
my hand in the air a few inches from the heater, and experience
no discomfort whatever, but the wall, two or more feet distant, is
nearly as warm as the heater itself. How came the wall to be
warmer than the air immediately surrounding the source of heat?
Physicists tell us that the ether of the air acts as a carrier of the
A CLIMATE MODIFIER. 685
heat, and that while in this state it is imperceptible to the ther-
mometer. It is not our purpose here to explain this phenomenon
but simply to point out the fact that heat may be carried from one
object to another without the temperature of the intervening
space being appreciably raised. Just so does the earth receive its
heat from the sun. We know that on high mountains even in
equatorial lands the temperature may be so low that perpetual
snow and ice prevail. So we see that space is not warm, but in-
tensely cold, and were it not for the fact that some of the constit-
uents of the atmosphere have the property of retaining heat once
entrapped, the earth would be unfit for habitation.
Travelers in desert regions are well aware of the fact that
though they may suffer from the intense heat of the day, yet at
night they will be compelled to draw their blankets close. In
Sahara, where "the soil is fire and the wind is flame," the refriger-
ation at night is often painful to bear. The explanation of this
sudden fall of temperature is simple. The air is parched and dry;
there is nothing left in the atmosphere to prevent the heat from
radiating back into space; even the carbon dioxide fails when left
to this task alone; so, after the disappearance of the sun, the heat
is rapidly lost and the temperature falls to this alarmingly low
point This proves the value of moisture, or aqueous vapor, in the
air, as a heat retainer. Tyndall says that "the removal, for a single
summer night, of the aqueous vapor of the atmosphere that covers
England would be attended by the destruction of every plant which
a freezing temperature could kill." (Tyndall, Heat Considered as
a Mode of Motion, p. 405. New York, 1863.) He has laid great
stress upon the value of aqueous vapor in the atmosphere, in this
connection; but others, notably Lecher, Pernter, Arrhenius, and
Chamberlin are inclined to think that carbon dioxide plays a much
more important part. The amount of water vapor in the air is
dependent upon climatic conditions, while, as we shall now see,
carbon dioxide is a producer of climate, and not a resultant of it.
Fourrier maintained that the atmosphere acts like the glass
of a hot house, while at present we are disposed to apply this
likeness especially to carbon dioxide. The rays of heat accom-
panied by light from the sun are permitted to pass unimpaired
through the glass of the conservatory, but when once in, they are
686 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
entrapped and cannot return. This property has given rise to the
statement that glass is insensible to "light heat," but intercepts or
absorbs "dark heat." This selective absorption is not exercised by
the chief mass of the air, but in a high degree by carbon dioxide,
which is present in the atmosphere in very small quantities. The
chief bulk of the air is nitrogen and oxygen, which together equal
about 99J per cent, and of the remaining part about .45 per cent
is aqueous vapor, while not more than .03 per cent is carbon
dioxide. If this apparently insignificant constituent of the atmos-
phere were reduced to carbon, it would form a layer not more than
.04 of one inch thick over the earth's surface, and yet we are com-
pelled to believe that if it were removed from the air, frigid con-
ditions would immediately prevail.
One may now ask, how much must the carbon dioxide vary in
order that the temperature should attain the same values as in
Tertiary and Glacial times, respectively? Arrhenius has shown
that by a simple calculation, the temperature in the arctic regions
would rise sufficiently to sustain life of the tropical and temperate
kinds, if the carbon dioxide increased to 2.5 to 3 times its present
value, and even when thus augmented it would represent but an
inappreciably small portion of the atmosphere. In order to get
the temperature of the ice-age, between the 40th and 50 parallels,
the carbon dioxide in the air should decrease to .62 per cent to
.55 per cent of it's present value. (London, Edinburgh, and Dub-
lin Philosophical Magazine, 5th series, Vol. 41, p. 268, 1896). He
adds: "The demands of the geologists, that at the genial epochs
the climate should be more uniform than now, accords very well
with the theory. The geographical, annual, and diurnal ranges of
temperature would be partly smoothed away, if the quantity of
carbonic acid was augmented."
And again one may ask, is the critical item of carbon dioxide
variable in any way, or is its percentage constant in the atmos-
phere? This much we can say, that to all our methods of measure-
ment, it's value does not change, but we do know that it is being
constantly supplied and removed. Perhaps the greatest source of
supply is the exhalations from volcanoes and earth vents in gen-
eral. It is mostly removed by the formation of carbonates from
silicates in the process of rock weathering. It is also well known
A CLIMATE MODIFIER. 687
that plant life requires carbon dioxide, but as this is all restored
to the atmosphere on the decay of the vegetation, these two pro-
cesses counter-balance each other. An immediate source of sup-
ply is the soa, which contains perhaps eighteen times as much car-
bon dioxide as the air. It ought also to be stated that the world's
present yearly production of coal is approximately five hundred
millions of tons, and this transformed into carbon dioxide, corres-
ponds to about one thousandth part of that now in the air. There
is also an enormous supply of this gas locked up in the calcium
carbonates, or limestones. Prof. Hogbom has estimated that there
is 25,000 times as much fixed in the lime and sedimentary rocks as
exists free in the air. (Hogbom, Svensk kemish Tidskrift, Bd. VI.,
p. 169, 1894.)
Prof. Arrhenius is inclined to think that probably the great
source supply is found in volcanic exhalations, and he argues that
as volcanism is by no means constant, the supply will also vary;
and "Just as single volcanoes have their periods of variation, with
alternating relative rest and intense activity, in the same manner
the' globe as a whole seems in certain geological epochs to have
exhibited a more violent and general volcanic activity, whilst other
epochs have been marked by a comparative quiescence of volcanic
forces. It seems, therefore, probable that the quantity of carbonic
acid in the air has undergone nearly simultaneous variations, or at
least that this factor has had an important influence."
Columbia University, New York City.
FAITH VERSUS DOUBT.
BY ALFRED OSMOND, PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, BRIGHAM YOUNG
UNIVERSITY.
The storm-cloud of doubt on the world has descended;
The pole star of promise no locger shines bright;
The drawn sword of justice hangs o'er us suspended,
And man is still clasped to the bosom of night.
688 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
No king of the heavens rules over the nation;
The prayer of the perishing soul is but breath.
The story is false that explains the creation,
And nothing is real but destruction and death.
Oh could man endure the advance of the ages,
And still keep his faith in the great living truth
Declared by the prophets and taught by the sages,
That he is a spirit of immortal youth.
Oh could he but stand on the heights of his learning,
And gaze on the glory his toil has achieved,
Yet still keep the fires of humility burning,
As bright as they glowed in the child that believed.
But no— he must climb the cold peaks of ambition,
And gaze with contempt on the valley below;
Up, up, he ascends to that lofty position,
Where man is his critic, and God is his foe.
Where blasts of the storm-king are howling around him-
The blood of affection is chilled in his veins.
The doubts that he trusted in fetters have bound him —
Alone on the mountain in grief he remains.
The dark prince of doubt is despotic and peerless;
His sceptre betokens an absolute sway.
His lands are unfruitful, his palaces cheerless;
His kingdom of glory is doomed to decay.
The great Prince of Faith is our captain forever.
We know that he reigns o'er a kingdom of love;
Rewards us on earth for our humblest endeavor,
And crowns us at last in a mansion above.
Provo, Utah.
T HEFULNESS OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
BY A. A. RAMSEYER.
In the May number of the Improvement Era, Joseph Smith,
the president of the Reorganized church, makes the assertion that
he knows "of no revelation on the subject of the fulness of the
priesthood other than the written articles of Joseph Smith,published
in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and dated September 1 and
6, 1842, in respect to the baptism for the dead at Nauvoo, which
some have called revelations; but there is nothing in themselves
to indicate that they are revelations. These articles refer only
to baptism for the dead."
Any ordinary reader of the book of Doctrine and Covenants
knows that this subject, the fulness of the priesthood, is very
clearly mentioned in the revelation given to Joseph Smith, at Nau-
voo, on January 19, 1841 (section 124, page 432). The Lord,
speaking to Joseph the Prophet, commanded him to make a sol-
emn proclamation of his gospel to all the nations of the earth, and
to invite them to come with their gold and silver, their precious
stones and their antiquities, and all the precious things of the
earth, to build a house to his name.
At that time, the Kirtland temple had been completed, dedi-
cated, and accepted of the Lord, who had condescended to come
and speak to his servants. Moses, Elias and Elijah came also, and
committed unto Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the keys of their
dispansations. Yet, with all these glorious powers conferred upon
Joseph, the Lord declared that
There is not a place found on earth that he may come and restore
690 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even
the fulness of the priesthood.
For a baptismal font there is not upon the earth, that they, my
Saints, may be baptized for those who are dead.
For this ordinanoe belongeth to my house, and cannot be acceptable
to me, only in the days of your poverty, wherein ye are not able to build
a house unto me (sec. 120: 28-30).
After telling his people that he will grant them a sufficient
time to build a temple, and during this time their baptisms shall
be acceptable unto him, the Lord adds:
For verily I say unto you, that after you have had sufficient time
to build a house to me, wherein the ordinance of baptizing for the dead
belongeth, and for which the same was instituted from before the foun-
dation of the world, your baptisms for your dead cannot be acceptable
unto me,
For therein are the keys of the holy priesthood, ordained that you may
receive power and glory (sec. 124: 33, 34, page 433).
Not only were baptisms for the dead to be performed in Nau-
voo, but the Lord says :
36. For it is ordained that in Zion, and in her stakes, and in Jerusa-
lem, those places which I have appointed for refuge, shall be the places
for your baptisms for your dead.
Hence the Latter-day Saints have built temples wherever they
are located, thus complying with the word of the Lord.
37. And again, verily I say unto you, How shall your washings be
acceptable unto me, except ye perform them in a house which you have
built to my name?
38. For, for this cause I commanded Moses that he should build a
tabernacle, that they should bear it with them in the wilderness; and to
build a house in the land of promise, that those ordinances might be re-
vealed which had been hid from before the world was.
Now the Lord enumerates the ordinances belonging to his
house:
39. Therefore, verily, I say unto you, that your anointings and your
washings, and your baptisms for the dead, and your solemn assemblies,
and your memorials for your sacrifices, by the sons of Levi, and for
THE FULNESS OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 691
your oracles in your most holy places, wherein ye receive conversations,
and your statutes and judgments, for the beginning of your revelations
and foundation of Zion, and for the glory, honor, and endowment of all
her municipals, are ordained by the ordinances of my holy house, which
my people are always commanded to build unto my holy name.
40. And, verily I say unto you, let this house be built unto my
name, that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people.
41. For I deign to reveal unto my Church, things which have been
kept hid from before the foundation of the world, things that pertain to
the dispensation of the fulness of times.
When the Lord commanded the Saints in Kirtland to build a
house to his name, (sec. 95: page 335) he told them to build it not
after the manner of the world, but after the manner which he would
show unto three — Hyrum Smith, R. Cahoon and Jared Carter. He
gave the size of the house and its use, viz., for sacrament offering,
for preaching, fasting, praying, and offering their most holy desires
unto the Lord, and for the school of the prophets (sec. 95: 13-17,
page 336). But as regards the Nauvoo temple, the Lord says, in
section 124:
42. And / will show unto my servant Joseph all things pertaining to
this house, and the priesthood thereof, and the place whereon it shall be
built.
Hence the written article of Joseph Smith, viz. sees. 127, 128
(page 448 to 458), which Joseph Smith, the head of the Re-organ-
ized church, does not seem to consider revelations, is one of the
items or things pertaining to this house (the Nauvoo temple) which
had been shown to the Prophet Joseph by the Lord, and can well
be accepted as revelation on the subject of baptism for the dead.
The Lord's flock knows the voice of the true shepherd. Upon this
point the Lord is very plain, for in verse 45 he says:
And if my people will hearken unto my voice, and unto the voice of
my servants whom I have appointed to lead my people, behold, verily I say
unto you, they shall not be maved out of their plase.
46. But if they will not hearken to my voice, nor unto the voice of
these men whom I have appointed, they shall not be blest, because they
pollute mine holy grounds, and mine holy ordinances, and charters, and
my holy words which I give unto them (sec. 124: 130).
692 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
Now this same revelation (sec. 124) gives the names of the
authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in
1841, viz. Hyrum Smith as presiding patriarch of the Church,
Joseph Smith as president over all the Church, with Sidney Rigdon
and William Law as counselors, who both apostatized from the
Church; as his twelve apostles, the Lord names Brigham Young,
Heber C. Kimball, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, Orson Hyde, Wil-
liam Smith, John Taylor, John E. Page, Wilford Woodruff, Willard
Richards, George A. Smith, and David Patten (deceased). At the
death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the twelve, as was their privi-
lege and duty, assumed the authority to lead the Church, accord-
ing to the revelation on priesthood, which says:
The twelve traveling counselors are called to be the twelve apos-
tles, or special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world; thus dif-
fering from other officers in the Church in the duties of their calling.
And they form a quorum, equal in authority and power to the three
presidents previously mentioned — the First Presidency (sec. 107:22, 23).
Two out of the twelve apostatized, while the remaining ma-
jority went with all their might to accomplish what Joseph and
Hyrum had planned, viz., the exodus from Nauvoo to the Rocky
mountains (see testimony of Samuel W. Richards in this regard, in
the October number of the Era, for 1904). The majority of the
people, according to the counsel of Joseph, followed the twelve,
who brought to Utah the Church records, the history of the
Church by Joseph Smith, and the still more precious powers and
keys of the fulness of the priesthood, obtained in Nauvoo.
As early as December 27, 1832, the Lord commanded his people
in Kirtland to build a temple (sec. 88: 119, page 318), but owing
to their slowness in considering that great commandment, he
chided them, and repeated his commandment on June 1, 1833 (sec.
95, page 335), which has been quoted above. Between these two
dates, on March 8, 1833, he gave to Joseph Smith a revelation,
wherein he promised him that the keys of the kingdom should
never be taken from him while in this world nor in the world to
come.
Nevertheless, through you shall the oracles be given to another; yea,
even unto the Church (sec. 90: 3, 4, page 323).
THE FULNESS OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 693
On the 3rd of April, 1836, the Savior appeared to Joseph
Smith and Oliver Cowdery, in the Kirtland temple, while Moses,
Elias and Elijah conferred upon them the keys of their respec-
tive dispensations. But after Oliver Cowdery left the Church,
Hyrum Smith received and was crowned with the same blessings
and glory and "honor and priesthood that were put upon him that
was my servant Oliver Cowdery" (sec. 124:95, page 441). And as
Elias had "committed [to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery] the
dispensation of the gospel of Abraham, saying that in us [Joseph and
Oliver,] and in our seed, all generations after us should be
blessed" (sec. 110: 12, page, 405), Hyrum Smith and his posterity
were blessed with the same blessings as his brother Joseph and
his posterity, those blessings being, of course, like all similar ones,
predicated upon their faithfulness. Furthermore, Hyrum Smith
at that time, was advanced from the position of counselor to
Joseph to that of presiding patriarch of the Church, succeeding
his father by blessing, by right, and by appointment.
And from this time forth I appoint unto him that he may be a
prophet, a seer, and a revelator unto my Church, as well as my servant
Joseph, that he may act in concert also with my servant Joseph, who
shall show unto him the keys whereby he may ask and receive the ora-
cles for the Church (sec. 124:91-96, page 440, 441: and verse 126, page
444,445).
More might be said on this subject, but let this suffice.
The grandeur and the importance of the items mentioned can
scarcely be estimated. Baptism for the dead, alone, is a theme
that can bring tears of joy from even a hardened sinner, if he
will but give room to the Spirit of God to touch his heart and
turn him after his fathers. The revelation contained in section
124 appears the most important one in the whole Book of Doc-
trine and Covenants, when read with sincere desire to know and
find the truth. But none are so blind as those who will not see,
nor so deaf as those who will not hear.
Let all the world know that the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints is possessed of all the keys, powers, and
authority that were possessed by the prophets of God, in mod-
ern or in ancient times, and that the fulness of the priesthood is
enjoyed by its honored leaders; for verily their dominion is an
694 IMPROVEMENT ERA
everlasting dominion; and without compulsory means, it shall
flow unto them for ever and ever.
Salt Lake City, Utah.
TO THE WORK.
To the work! to the work! we are servants of God;
Let us follow the path that our Master has trod;
With the balm of his counsel our strength to renew,
Let us do with our might what our hands find to do.
To the work! to the work! let the hungry be fed,
To the fountain of life let the weary be led;
In the cross and its banner our glory shall be,
While we herald the tidings, "Salvation is free."
To the work! to the work! there is labor for all,
For the kingdom of darkness and error shall fall;
And the name of Jehovah exalted shall be,
In the loud swelling chorus, "Salvation is free."
To the work! to the work! in the strength of our Lord,
And a robe and a crown shall our labor reward;
When the home of the faithful our dwelling shall be,
And we shout with the ransomed, "Salvation is free."
Selected.
TOPICS OF MOMENT.
Rupture Between Norway and Sweden.
Fridtjof Nansen and Sven Hedin, both intrepid explorers and
politicians, have carried on an accrimonious debate, during the
early months of the year, in the columns of the London Times.
The former has contended practically against the union of Norway
and Sweden in consular service, while the latter has upheld the
former arrangements, and argued for the union of the two nations,
predicting that in the event of separation, a great part of north-
ern Norway would become the prey of Russia. This consular
trouble between the two countries is of long standing, but has
now come to a crisis, resulting in Norway, through its national
parliament, or Storthing, declaring that Norwegian consul-gen-
erals, consuls and vice- consuls, by and through whom Nor-
way and Sweden have heretofore been united in foreign and di-
plomatic relations, shall hereafter be appointed and placed under
the direction of the Norwegian government. Tie new law is to
take effect April 1, 1906. For nearly a hundred years (1814) the
two countries have been united under one king — the king of
Sweden. The king and a ministry form the executive, with the
legislative power in parliament, consisting of an upper and a lower
house. There has been a movement in Norway for many years to-
wards a greater or complete separation from Sweden. Norway
has contended that the joint consular service has been used to
subordinate Norwegian interests to those of Sweden, owing to the
fact that the former is practically a free trade country, while the
latter has adopted a system of high tariffs.
Since February 8, the crown prince Gustaf of Sweden has
been acting as regent, owing to the age of his father, King Oscar,.
696 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
but on May 27, King Oscar resumed the throne to avoid burdening
his successor with the odium resulting from the refusal of the
Norwegian desires. He then refused to sign the bill for separate
Norwegian consuls, because the existing arrangement was estab-
lished by a mixed council of the two governments, and only that
council could disturb it; and further, his love for both people —
his motto is "The welfare of the brotherhood."— impelled him to
refuse his sanction. Each member of the Norwegian cabinet then
personally urged the king to consent to it, but he was unalterable;
whereupon the cabinet resigned, but their resignations were
promptly declined. Then the ministers insisted, on the ground
that the king's veto of a unanimous decision of the cabinet upheld
by the whole people, was a violation of the constitution, an inva-
sion of the rights, independence and sovereignty of Norway, and
they refused to countersign the king's veto; and without their
signatures the veto is said to be constitutionally non-existent.
The king's veto is limited, and the parliament may pass the
measure twice more when it becomes law without his signature.
No effort will be made to compel Norway to remain in the Union,
further than to protest; and it is not probable that war will result.
The Norwegian Parliament has made an effort to find a prince
that would accept the new kingdom, having offered it to one of
the royal family of Sweden, but the offer was declined. The flag,
however, has been changed, and by public demonstration in Chris-
tiania, the "clean" flag, and the new order of things, have been ac-
cepted by the army and navy. Whether any of the powers will
recognize the new kingdom, or republic, whatever it may turn out
to be, remains to be seen, but it is generally considered doubtful.
Battle of the Sea of Japan.
One of the greatest sea battles of modern times was that of
the Sea of Japan, May 27-28, between a division of the Japanese
navy, commanded by Admiral Togo, and the Russian Baltic fleet,
commanded by Admiral Rozhdestvensky. Out of the thirty-two
vessels in all which composed the Russian fleet, only the cruiser
Almaz and three destroyers reached Vladivostok ;and three cruisers
under Admiral Enquist reached and have been interned in Manila.
With these exceptions, every vessel of the Russian fleet in the Sea
TOPICS OF MOMENT. 697
of Japan was sunk or captured. It is estimated that five thous-
and Russians perished and three thousand were taken prisoners. The
Japanese lost one hundred and thirteen killed, and four hundred and
twenty-four wounded. The completeness of the Russian defeat is laid
to lack of tact and incompetence in the commanders,poor marksman-
ship, lack of ammunition, lack of a knowledge of the enemies' po-
sition, mutinous crews, and untrained cavalry-men, who had been
hastily transferred from the saddle to the quarter deck to fill
gaps. Only three torpedo boats belonging to the Japs were suDk-
Admiral Nebogatoff surrendered four ships, after being pursued to
the Liancourt Rocks, Sea of Japan; Admiral Rozhdestvensky was
wounded and captured; while Admiral Enquist deserted the fleet in
the midst of the battle, and reached Manila with three cruisers.
On the other hand, in making his report of the battle, Admiral
Togo declares that the victory was wholly due to the "resplendent
virtue of the Mikado;" in other words, there were patriotism and
spirit behind the guns. With the Russians there was neither. The
Japanese realized that upon their action depended the destiny of
their empire, and they fought for love of it, while the Russians
had no aim, but were in the conflict under compulsion, or for pay.
Peace Talk.
At the time (June 2) when Count Cassini, the Russian Ambas-
sador, had an interview with President Roosevelt, and the latter
told the Russian in effect that it is time for the Czar to conclude
peace with Japan, there were some people inclined to believe Pres-
ident Roosevelt had made a mistake. But he was evidently inspired,
for his utterance has led to the beginning of negotiations, and it
is surmised that the President of the United States will act as
mediator between the two beligerent powers. The destruction of
the Russian Baltic fleet in ths eastern channel of the Korea Strait
and the Sea of Japan, during the last days of May, by the Japanese,
has brought about this condition. But the Czar does not intend
to be forced by his own people, as would appear from his ukase of
June 2, granting extraordinary powers to Governor General Tre-
poff, the most determined and merciless of Russian officials, over
the whole empire,— for the suppression of political agitation. He
was made Assistant Minister of the Interior, Chief of the Police
698 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
Department, and Commander of the Gendarmery, with power to
close all assemblies and congresses, to indefinitely suspend all
leagues, societies and other bodies displaying pernicious activity,
and to take other necessary steps to prevent interference with the
present condition of things in the country. The Czar is also said
to have declared that he would rather die than sign an ignomin-
ious peace treaty. But the declaration of President Roosevelt for
peace seems to meet a hearty response with the Russian public.
The peace congress will likely meet in Washington.
Results of the Naval Battle.
The destruction of the Russian Baltic fleet is compared by
some to Trafalgar. Whether it is so momentous an event as some
would have us believe, this much is certain, it gives Japan the
leadership in affairs of China and Manchuria, and no land grabbing
European or other power will be likely to repeat the experiment of
Russia in the far East. The lesson which the victory teaches is
now the main subject for discussion, and politicians and statesmen,
as well as army and navy experts, are trying to determine what
effect it will have upon the course of international events, as well
as upon the use of battleships or torpedo boats in war. The polit-
ical consequences of Admiral Togo's victory may not be as far-
reaching as some would think, but certain it is that Japan exer-
cises control over the Western Pacific, and that all Russia's inter-
ests in the far East are defenseless, except the port of Vladivos-
tok, against which fortress operations are soon likely to be under-
way. As to the value of the battleship or the torpedo boat in sea
battles, this can scarcely be decided until more definite details of
the battle by official reports are forthcoming.
Cuba's Growth.
On May 20, Cuba celebrated the third anniversary of its birth
as a republic. Contrary to the utterances of the doubtful, Cuba,
notwithstanding her three hundred years of virtual bondage under
Spain, has shown a wonderful capacity for self-government. That
doubt of her ability to control herself and expand existed in the
Congress of our country, there can be no question, as witness the
so called Piatt amendment to the Cuban constitution. It was cer-
TOPICS OF MOMENT. 699
tainly considered improbable that Cuba would enforce the neces-
sary compliance with sanitary regulations; but, on the contrary,
the precautions taken during the American occupation to shield
the island, as well as this country, from contagion, have been
efficiently kept up, except in Santiago, and at that place
twenty thousand dollars per month of national funds have re-
cently been ordered for local sanitary purposes. No other country
in the world has so low a death rate as Cuba had in 1904. It was
14.52, having decreased to this figure since the first year of the
new republic, when it was lower than in any of the preceding
thirty years. Yellow fever is completely wiped out, and there was
not a single case of small pox, in 1904. The population, which in
1899 was a million and a half, is now said to have increased by
three hundred thousand, and last year the number of immigrants
was fifteen thousand, who mostly came from Spain. While three
years ago Cuba's sugar crop was about three hundred thousand tons,
it had increased last year to a million tons, and to this amount the
present season will probably add as much as the entire production
three years ago. Raw cotton, fruit and vegetables, are increas-
ing rapidly, and the surplus is sent twice a week by steamer to
this country, our imports from Cuba having increased from fifty-
seven million dollars, in 1903, to nearly seventy-five million dollars
last year; while our exports to that country have grown from
about twenty-four million dollars in 1903, to nearly thirty-three
million dollars in 1904. The railroad situation is very encourag-
ing. Cuba has acquired a railway system quite adequate to develop
her agricultural resources, and has now a mileage of two thousand
miles, and the growth is continual. When Governor-General Wood
turned over the administration of Cuba there were a little over a
half a million dollars in the treasury, and now, after three years,
with all improvements and expenses paid, there remains about ten
millions, showing the excellent administrative economy and purity
of the government under President Thomas Estrada Palma. A
new election will be held in December of this year. Already the
Moderates have practically decided that Palma will be the next
nominee; while the Liberal party will likely put forward General
Jose Miguel Gomez, who, under certain contingencies, is said to
have a good chance of winning.
EDITOR'S TABLE.
LOYALTY TO HOME INTERESTS.
It is a splendid practice to be loyal to one's own. It seems
to me this truth applies not only to individuals, but also to com-
munities. It is of fundamental practice among the Latter-day
Saints, and it should continue to be, for vital and obvious reasons.
Only the thoughtless will deny its efficacy and importance. And
yet, we find many Latter-day Saints who appear to be very short-
sighted in this respect.
You have heard of the professor who tempted the child:
"Here," said he, "is a box of fine candy, and here is a handful of
the same candy. You may have the box tomorrow, or the hand-
ful now. Which will you take?" The child took the handful now.
Such losing short-sightedness is not uncommon among elder per-
s ons. It is frequently witnessed in the business affairs of some
people who appear only to grasp the value of things in immediate
sight. They become infidel to their own interests when the temp-
tation of an apparent immediate benefit confronts them. They
are dead to the value of a little self-denial and sacrifice today,
which, if engaged in, would result in vast financial interest to-
morrow.
Is this fact not illustrated every day in our business transac-
tions? People run hither and thither, and do things that save
them a penny today, but that will perhaps cause them the loss of
a dollar tomorrow. If this or that commodity, or utility, or
what not, may be purchased just a trifle cheaper, from some insti-
tution in which neither they nor their friends are interested, and
from which they will never derive a general benefit, they buy at
once. Their sympathy and patronage go directly where immedi-
EDITOR'S TABLE. 701
ate results apparently accrue, but in reality where loss appears in
the end.
Individuals thus constituted chuckle at opposition to home en-
terprises and institutions, and are first to desert their friends, and
really their own interests, to give support to strangers and foreign
enterprise. They appear always to be jealous, fearing that their
friends and neighbors may gain some benefit from their help and
patronage. Instead of rejoicing in the prosperity of their own,
they are glad to add their weight to the disadvantage of their
home institutions. Is that a cheaper pleasure-resort than the
home- established one; is that a cheaper theater, a cheaper light,
cheaper sugar, soap, or street car fare? If so, such people are
ever ready to abandon the tried, home institutions, which have
struggled to give the people good service, often at loss and great
sacrifice, and fly to the support of competition which, for the
present, may offer them a seeming advantage, but which in the
long run is often calculated to end in financial loss. It is often
the motto of new firms to kill competition, and then raise prices.
Our local institutions have done great service to the people by
being fair in prices, and being willing to live and let live; not
going to low extremes today, so as to enable them to reach high
extremes tomorrow, but pursuing a steady, business-like course.
In this way, for instance, Z. C. M. I. has saved our people incalcu-
lable amounts, by acting as a general balance to the price of mer-
chandise. And since the capital invested in the co-operative
stores is also owned by the people, the community is benefited
both ways by extending support to these institutions.
This applies to the sugar factories, also. Do we not remem-
ber what we paid for sugar before the first factory was estab-
lished? Do we not also remember how the value of land has in-
creased since the factories created a market for beets? And
have we forgotten the benefits to the farmer from the markets
created, through which ready cash is paid for all the products of
the farm? And yet, there are actually people who would buy im-
ported sugar, if it could be obtained a few cents cheaper per hun-
dred; and people, too, who would be most benefitted by the advan-
tages which the home factories have created! If it were not for
the home factories, the hundreds of thousands of dollars now
702 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
paid the farmer for beets, for tomatoes, and fruits, would not be cir-
culated among the people. Further, these home institutions, with
many others that might be named, give remunerative employment
to large numbers of home laborers who are paid fair wages. They
do not wish to engage cheap labor, but the motto of our local em-
ployers, as demonstrated in the past, is to live and let live. Tbey
do not study to employ foreign pauper labor, but give the first op-
portunity to people who reside here. The people may, therefore,
well be loyal to our home institutions, and to the men who have
invested their capital in them, not altogether selfishly, but often
with a thought for the benefit of the public generally — a truth
plainly demonstrated in the establishment of our co-op. mercantile
institutions, factories, and places of amusement. Loyalty to home
enterprises ends, if not in direct, petty advantage, certainly in an
indirect, broad and great benefit and permanent profit to all.
Is it not, then, better and wiser to patronize and uphold our
own home institutions, than to labor against them by encouraging
opposition that will tend to kill or discourage them, and leave the
people in the hands of competitors who, when home organizations
are once out of the way, will feed themselves fat upon the people who
have been short-sighted enough to permit such ruinous conditions.
Let the people, therefore, be loyal to themselves, and to their
own interests, by abandoning the short-sighted policy of petty,
temporary gain which ultimately is sure to end in permanent loss.
Let capital and labor decide to be fair to each other, live and let
live, and, as a result, both will prosper. These truths apply not
only to the leading industries, and public utilities injthe hands and
under the control of our citizens' in Sals Lake City, and this state
generally, but they are pertinent to every settlement and^home in-
dustry in the neighborhood.
Let us encourage each other, and be loyal to our own.
Joseph F. Smith.
THE FOURTH OF JULY.
We have become so accustomed to the noisy and more or less
mechanical celebration of the Fourth of July, that in many cases,
EDITOR'S TABLE. 703
especially among the young, the true meaning of the national holi-
day has been hidden behind the smoke and noise and general hilar-
ity. A little refreshing of the mind on this subject may serve to
recall the thoughtless to a deeper appreciation of the day and its
observances. Every holiday, or "holy day," is sacred to the event
it commemorates;— set apart for the purpose of bringing that
event anew to the mind. This is pre-eminently the case with the
great day which signalizes the birth of a new nation, "conceived
in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are cre-
ated equal." Hence they who celebrate it should do so with a
reverent feeling; for the birth of such a nation was accompanied
by pangs more than mortal, and the shedding of the noblest and
most precious blood.
When July 4, 1776, dawned, on the thirteen colonies, they
were engaged in a death struggle with the mother country. The
fundamental principle for which they fought was the equality of
men and of nations, and the inalienable rights of all men to "life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These rights, in their ful-
ness, were denied the colonies by Great Britain; and her privilege
of sovereignty over them was asserted by word and by war. The
colonists resisted, and the warfare had raged more than a year.
Hopes had been entertained, at first, that a reconciliation would
be brought about, and the colonies remain subject to the parent
government; but as time went on, and the breach was widened, this
hope died out, and it became necessary for reasons to be advanced
for making the separation complete, and permanent. Accordingly,
the Declaration of Independence was formulated and adopted. A
resolution declaring the United Colonies free and independent
states was adopted on July 2, 1776, although the final action of
signing and promulgating the Declaration of Independence, did
not take place until July 4.
By this action, the colonists declared themselves free and in-
dependent, capable and worthy of self-government; amenable to
no other power but God's; possessed of every element which goes
to make a sovereign nation. In the declaration, which was written
by the great and talented Thomas Jefferson, were set forth at
length the series of wrongs, oppressions, and tyrannies which had
forced the representatives of the colonies to take this action. This
704 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
is, in brief, a history of the action which has rendered the Fourth
of July dear to all Americans, and the occasion of the sincerest
rejoicing.
But these men fully understood the seriousness of their action,
and its possible consequences to themselves and their country.
They knew that their mere declaration did not make the United
Colonies "free and independent states." That independence, they
knew, would have to be achieved by bloodshed, and the greatest
personal sacrifices. Hence, Benjamin Franklin's reply to the re.
mark of a fellow-congressman that they must hang together.
"Yes." said he, "if we don't hang together, we shall all hang sep-
arately." For the issuance of this declaration was considered, in
Great Britain, a treasonable act, and worthy of death. And after
all, our great criterion, in distinguishing the patriot and the rebel,
is success or failure. But the outcome justified the heroic action
of the Continental Congress, although the war was waged six
years longer, and at times the patriot cause seemed almost hope-
less, yet triumph came at length, and by the treaty of Paris, sign-
ed in September, 1783, the Declaration of Independence became of
full force and efficacy.
Hence, although the pen of Jefferson produced the Declara-
tion, it was sealed with the blood of thousands. Nay, may it not
be said, that in effect the document was written with sword and
bayonet, in the life-blood of patriots, and not with Jefferson's pen.
And the celebration of the day should accordingly be approached
not only with festivity and rejoicing, but with serious thought on
how to maintain that independence, and with deep thanksgiving to
the God of nations. ,
Willard Done.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
Mahonri Moriancumer.
Is the name of the brother of Jared known? If so, what is it, and
when was it made known?
EDITOR'S TABLE. 705
The name of the brother of Jared is Mahonri Moriancumer.
In a note to an article on The Jaredites> Elder George Reynolds, in
the Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 27, page 282, says, concerning the
revealing of the name, which is not found in the Book of Mormon:
"While residing in Kirtland Elder Reynolds Cahoon had a son born
to him. One day when President Joseph Smith was passing his door he
called the Prophet in and asked him to bless and name the baby. Joseph
did so and gave the boy the name of Mahonri Moriancumer. When he
had finished the blessing he laid the child on the bed, and turning to
Elder Cahoon he said, the name I have given your son is the name of
the brother of Jared; the Lord has just shown (or revealed) it to me.
Elder William F. Cahoon, who was standing near, heard the Prophet
make this statement to his father; and this was the first time the name
of the brother of Jared was known in the Church in this dispensation."
NOTES.
There is no better way of emptying the mind of evil than by filling
it with good.
There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle, or the mir-
ror that reflects it.
The best things are nearest. Then do not grasp at the stars, but
do life's plain, common work as it comes.
Instead of asking what we can get out of the world, it would be
better to consider what we can give to it.
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has
not, but rejoices for those which he has. — Epietetus.
Thou hast seen many sorrows, travel-stained pilgrim of the world,
but that whictfhas vexed thee most has been thy looking for evil,
and things that never happened have chiefly made thee wretched.— Pro-
verbial Philosophy.
706 IMPRO VEMENT ERA .
"Young men, and old men, too, should learn the truth that the only
real, lasting pleasure in life comes from being actively busy at some
work every day; doing something worth while, and doing it as well as
you know how. The more we appreciate this fact, the more will we be
able to make the most of our lives."
In his life of Walter Scott, Lockhart quotes from one of his father's
letters: "Forty-five years old today; my life is now more than half done.
The day was when I tried to kill time; now I guard each golden hour as
a miser holds on to his coin. Henceforth I mean to do only the things
that count." Weightier words than these the biography of great men
does not contain.
Grow tall — tall enough to look over Mount Difficulty into Hope
City. Grow broad — broad enough to bear with people whom God has
made different from ourselves. Grow deep, sending roots down into per-
petual springs. Come to know God. Grow straight, measuring right up
to the line of duty. Grow stout, ready for burdens, and ready for fruit.
Christian Observer.
"The mushroom needs only a night," says the Reverend Newell
D wight Hillis, "the moss asks a week for covering the fallen tree; the
humble vegetable asks several weeks, and the strawberry a few months;
but, planting his apple tree, the gardener must wait a few years for
his ripened russet, and the woodsman many years for the full grown oak
or elm."
A character in The Little Minister said he was going to cut down a
certain tree which was in his way, but he kept postponing it. The tree
widened and grew tall. The man aged and still the tree stood. "I grew
old looking for an ax," he said. We all know people who are all their
lives announcing that they are going to do a certain thing, but they never
get at it. They are always waiting for an ax, waiting for the most
favorable opportunity — for just the right tools.
IN LIGHTER MOOD.
We ought to get the truth now about the battle. The American
admiral at Manila is holding an Enquist. — N. Y. World.
Supposing you were asked which you preferred — a half-yearly rise
of $.100 or a rise of $400 a year — which would you choose?
A tale of financial difficulties, but having a happy ending, is thus
told by the Yale Record:
Bill had a bill-board. Bill also had a board bill. The board bill
bored Bill, so that Bill sold the bill-board to pay his board bill. So after
Bill sold his bill-board to pay his board bill, the board bill no longer
bored Bill.
"There is a Persian story about a pessimist. This story is so old
that no date can be assigned to it. It concerns a pessimistic farmer.
" 'Good friend,' a visitor said to the farmer, 'you are fortunate this
year.' He pointed to the heavy and rich grain fields spreading as far as
the eye could see. 'You can't grumble,' he went on, 'about your crops
this season, eh?'
" 'No, I can't grumble,' whined the pessimist; 'but a crop like this
is terribly wearing on the soil.' "
The typical Marblehead boy of ten or twelve years is much averse
to attending school, preferring to loaf about the wharves or to earn a
nickle on the golf-links.
One day last summer a Boston man who occupies a cottage there,
while playing golf noticed that his caddie remained dangerously near
the tee at each drive. After expostulating in vain he concluded to let
the boy run the chance of getting hurt.
They had played some time, when the lad, growing friendly and
more communicative, suddenly exclaimed:
"Oh, yer'd ought ter see the luck Jim Finnegan hed yesterday!"
"What did he do?" questioned the golfer.
"Why," said the lad, gleefully, "he got hit in the hed with a golf
ball, the man giv' him a dollar, an' he won't hev' ter go ter school fur a
whole week. — Harper's.
708 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
John Burroughs, the naturalist, is opposed to nature books that
treat of animals too imaginatively — that impute to animals sentiments
of love, pity, tenderness and refinement, which mankind has no way of
proving that they possess.
"Sometimes, in reading one of these fictitious nature-stories —
stories that many persons believe to be true — I am reminded," Mr. Bur-
rougs said one day, "of the story of the intelligent copperhead. This
story is quite as true as many that are implicitly credited.
"According to it, there was a man who had the habit of teasing
copperheads. He would find a copperhead's hole, and then he would wait
beside it until the snake returned — until it had gotten so far into the
hole that only the end of its tail protruded. This he would seize,
and with a quick movement he would throw the snake twentv or thirty
feet away.
"One day the man did this to a copperhead of unusual intelligence.
The snake, on alighting, did not make for its hole again immediately, as
the others had always done, but it lay still, and regarded its tormentor,
thinking. For a long while it thought: then very slowly it began to
approach the hole, turned around, and entered backward — entered tail
first — sneering slightly at the man whom it had thus duped."
As the liner cleared the leads and the heavy swell of the open At-
lantic became noticeable, dinner was served. The twenty-six places at
the captain's table were filled, and as the soup appeared the captain ad-
dressed his table companions:
"I trust that all twenty-five of you will have a pleasant trip," he
said, "and that this little assemblage of twenty-four will reach port
much benefited by the voyage. I look upon these twenty-two smiling
faces as a father upon his family, for I am responsible for the lives of
this group of nineteen. I hope all fourteen of you will join me later in
drinking to a merry trip. I believe we seven fellow passengers are ad-
mirably suited to each other, and I applaud the judgment which chose
from the passenger list these three persons for my table. You and I,
my dear sir, are — "
The captain chuckled.
"Here, steward, bring on my fish and clear away these dishes." —
Tit-Bits.
OUR WORK.
M. I. A. ANNUAL CONFERENCE.
The annual conference of the Mutual Improvement Associations
opened on Friday, June 9th, in the Barratt Hall. The officers of the
Young Men's and Young Ladies' Associations met in conjoint session for
devotional exercises, after which the Young Ladies adjourned to the
Brigham Young Memorial Building, and the Young Men continued their
session in the Barratt Hall. Elder B. H. Roberts presided. There were
two subjects discussed at each session on Friday and Saturday.
On Friday morning Elder Joseph W. McMurrin discussed the follow-
ing subject: "Substitute for Formal Missionary Work — General Individ-
ual Work — Personal Attention by Officers to Members — Arousing of Uni-
versal Patriotism." He announced that the General Board had decided
to abandon formal missionary work, and that it would be expected of
the officers of the asssociations to do the missionary work required in the
associations. It was then urged that the officers pay personal attention
to members, and by individual work enthuse the young people in their
districts to attend the associations. It was also announced that an
effort must be made to arouse universal patriotism for the associations,
and to this end, every member is expected to become a missionary.
Beginning with the members of the General Board, who will be called
upon now and then to report their labors in the meetings of the Board,
it is expected that every officer in the associations will become a mis-
sionary and report his labors at the weekly meetings, or at such other
time as may be set apart for this purpose, and also that officers will call
upon members to ascertain what is being done in this direction.
A discussion followed.
Elder George A. Smith then spoke upon the subject, "Obstacles in
the Way of Mutual Improvement: (a) In Our Country Wards, (b) In
Our City Wards." He touched upon the difficulties that lie in the way of
710 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
Mutual Improvement, and laid particular stress upon the lack of initia-
tive, tact and ingenuity, on the part of the officers of the association.
He urged upon them the need of acquiring these virtues to make the
association a success, and to dispel the difficulties in the way of the
work. He urged especially punctuality, approachableness, good example,
and a leadership in social affairs, as among the virtues that would ac-
complish this result.
At the meeting in the afternoon Superintendent Alexander Buch-
anan, of the Pioneer stake, dwelt upon the subject of "Indispensability
of Regular Ward and Stake Officers' Meetings and a Regular Order of
Business." He gave an outline of the order of business in monthly
stake union meetings and weekly ward meetings, for the guidance of
the officers present. It was especially urged upon the officers to meet
regularly, both in stake and ward capacity.
Elder George H. Brimhall spoke upon "The Fall Conventions," and
the following dates for the conventions, to be held in the various stakes,
were read and approved:
August 13, Alberta,
August 20, Taylor.
August 27, Alpine, Beaver, Emery, Juab, Malad, San Juan, San
Luis.
August 28, Panguitch.
September 3, Box Elder, Cassia, Granite, Pocatello, Teton, Bannock,
Jordan, Nebo, Weber, South Davis.
September 4, Kanab, Big Horn.
September 10, Morgan, Ensign, Salt Lake, Pioneer, Liberty, Star
Valley, South Sanpete, Hyrum, Utah, Sevier, Cache, Woodruff.
September 11, St. George.
September 17, North Davis, Fremont, Bear Lake, North Sanpete,
Summit, Wayne, Millard.
September 19, Parowan.
September 24, Union, Uintah, Wasatch, Blackfoot, Oneida, Tooele,
Bingham.
October 1, Benson.
The dates for the Arizona and Mexico conventions will be an-
nounced later.
A circular giving the details of the order of business for the con-
ventions, the programs and other instructions to stake and ward officers,
in this connection, will be issued and distributed in ample time to reach
the officers before the conventions are held. The second edition of the
Digest of Instructions, issued last season by the General Board, will also
OUR WORK. 711
be prepared in time for distribution among the officers. This digest will
contain instructions pertaining to the machinery of our associations
with which every officer should familiarize himself.
At the 10 o'clock session, on Saturday morning, 10th, there were
"Ten Two Minute Talks on Manual Difficulties," by officers from the body
of the house, and a response was given by Elder B. H. Roberts, showing
how the difficulties of last season's manual, which will apply in a great
measure to the present season's manual, may be overcome. He also
gave a splendid preview of the manual for 1905-6, the text of which will
be printed in the Era for August.
Following the remarks of Elder Roberts, Elder Douglas M. Todd
spoke on "The Excuse Hunter — Kill Him Off." He pointed out the dif-
ference between the person with a legitimate excuse and the one hunt-
ing for an excuse. Those who hunt for an excuse, generally have failed
to do a duty, and it is then they hunt around for some excuse to justify
them. There should be no excuse hunters in the Mutual Improvement
Associations.
At the afternoon session at 2 o'clock, Elder Bryant S. Hinckley
presented the diagram of the machinery of the Mutual Improvement
Associations, which will be printed in the Digest of Instructions, and
will be of great value to the officers in presenting before them the
organization and the essentials of our associations. He proposed an
athletic contest in connection with our annual conference.
The closing exercise of the afternoon session was given by Elder Ed-
ward H. Anderson, who spoke upon the subject, "The Spirit Giveth Life.''
He contended that all living things are dual, that the material is but the
covering to the life within, and that without the spirit, the material, or
outward form, is dead; and also that the spirit can only give expression
through outward forms. The machinery of our associations may be
likened to the forms or framework of material matter, but the spirit of
the work, the love of it, must underlie these forms to make them suc-
cessful. It is this spirit and love of the work that officers must have
to make a success of their associations, and? which they must seek to
instil into the hearts of the members.
Elder Junius F. Wells followed, giving a detailed statement of the
origin of the first Mutual Improvement Association, thirty years ago to-
day. He gave a clear account of the calling of himself and others, by
President Brigham Young to organize the associations, and also gave a
history of the first organization in the Thirteenth Ward, Salt Lake City,
on the 10th of June, 1875. His remarks will appear in the Era in full.
President Joseph F. Smith made some closing remarks, giving the
712 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
officers his blessing, and urging upon them the necessity of obtaining
the spirit of Mutual Improvement work. This may be obtained by at.
tention to duty and by effort in the work outlined for them. He was
exceedingly interested in Mutual Improvement work, and recognized its
great importance as a factor in assisting to build up the Church and
kingdom of God, and to keep the young Latter-day Saints in their line of
duty.
On Sunday morning, 11th, there was a conjoint officers' meeting of
the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Associations in the Assembly Hall,
Elder B. H. Roberts presiding. After greetings by Sister Martha Home
Tingey, president of the Young Ladies Associations, and by Elder B. H.
Roberts, for the young men, Elder Mathonihah Thomas, superintendent
of the Ensign Stake, spoke upon "How May Our Association Create a
Popular Sentiment for Right Things?"
This was followed by a discussion from the body of the house, at
the close of which Elders George M. Cannon, Jr., and Noel Pratt sang
Evan Stephens' "God Bless Our Mountain Home."
Sister Mary E. Connelly, of the General Board of Young Ladies'
then spoke upon "The Member With a Purpose," which was followed by
a discussion.
Sister Sasie Heath, president of Pioneer Stake, gave some instruc-
tions on the "Management of Preliminary Programs,'' followed by
Elder B. F. Grant, of the General Board of Young Men's Associations, on
"Management of Conjoint Meetings."
A very interesting exercise was ten minutes devoted to one-minute
talks on results ©f last year's resolution on "Reverence for Sacred
Things." The resolution reads as follows:
Resolved, That we will exert every effort to persuade the
members of our associations to join in developing in the hearts of
our young people a sentiment of reverence for sacred places and sacred
things; and to unite with us in refraining from talk, laughter and all
unseemly conduct in our worshiping assemblages; and in keeping all of
our places of worship clean, well ventilated and attractive.
The discussion showed that much good had resulted where an effort
had been made, from the efforts of the young people in this matter,
that the conduct in worshiping assemblages was better, that houses of
worship had greatly improved in attractiveness, cleanliness, and in
general appearance, much of which was due to the efforts of the associ-
ations in this direction. Many had not put the resolution into practice,
and on motion it was readopted.
In the afternoon at 2 o'clock, the associations met in the great
OUR WORK. 713
Tabernacle, which was comfortably filled with young people. The music was
in charge of Elder Evan Stephens and the Tabernacle choir,and the organ
under J. J. McClellan. The choir sang, as the opening hymn, "True to
the Faith," and after prayer, the anthem, "Glory to the Lord, our De-
liverer," the music by McClellan and the words by Stephens, Thomas S.
Ashworth singing the solo.
Secretary Thomas Hull presented the names of the officers of the
Young Ladies' Associations, the Primary Associations, and the Young
Men's Mutual Improvement Associations. The officers of the Y. M. M.
I. A. are as follows:
Joseph F. Smith, General Superintendent; Heber J. Grant, B. H.
Roberts, Assistants; Thomas Hull, Secretary and Treasurer; Evan
Stephens, Music Director; Horace S. Ensign, Assistant Music Director.
AIDS.
Francis M. Lyman, John Henry Smith, Matthias F. Cowley, J.
Golden Kimball, Junius F. Wells, Milton H. Hardy, Rodney C. Badger,
George H. Brimhall, Edward H. Anderson, Douglas M. Todd, Thomas
Hull, Nephi L. Morris, Willard Done, Le Roi C. Snow, Frank Y. Taylor,
Rudger Clawson, Rulon S. Wells, Joseph W. McMurrin, Reed Smoot, Bry-
ant S. Hinckley, Moses W. Taylor, B. F. Grant, Henry S. Tanner, Hyrum
M. Smith, William B. Dougall, Joseph F. Smith, Jr., 0. C. Beebe, Lewis
T. Cannon, Philip S. Maycock, Benjamin Goddard, George A. Smith,
Thomas A. Clawson, Louis A. Kelsch, L. R. Martineau.
A synopsis of the reports of our associations follows:
Number* of associations, 689, including 40 in foreign countries-
members enrolled, 31,648, including 1,632 in foreign countries; average
attendance, 12,508; members on missions, 846; meetings held, 21,977.
Exercises: lessons from Manual, 21,432; home preparations, 46,920;
miscellaneous, 10,883. Reports were received from the Hawaiian, Cali-
fornia, Netherlands, Northwestern States, Northern States, and Eastern
States, Missions, and from all the stakes of Zion except two — St. Joseph
and Teton.
There are 592 Young Ladies' associations, with a membership of
25,951, and an average attendance of 12,097. Meetings of all kinds
to the number of 27,402 had been held, and 38,135 testimonies
had been borne.
There are 649 Primary Associations with a membership of 42.249.
Frank P. Foster sang a tenor solo, "The Lord is my Light," follow-
ing which Elder Junius F. Wells spoke on the subject, "Tested by the
Lives of its Members, How Far is M. I. A. Work Vindicated?"
714 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
Nellie Druce Pugsley sang "Gospel Restoration," assisted by the
Tabernacle choir, following which Sister Ruth M. Fox, of the Young
Ladies' Board, spoke on "Home Influence — the Source of Spiritual and
Moral Living."
This was followed by an address by Minnie L. Snow, of the General
Board of the Primary Associations, on the training of the children in the
Primary Associations.
The Tabernacle choir closed a most instructive and interesting
meeting by appropriate singing.
A general meeting was held at 7 o'clock in the evening, at which
Ida B. Smith, of the General Board of Primary Associations, occupied
ten minutes in the interest of the young children.
Lottie Owen sang a soprano solo, "With Verdure Clad."
Sister Susa Young Gates spoke on "Effort May Modify Environ-
ment."
A quartette was sung by Messrs. Thomas S. Ashworth, W. Derr,
Chas. Pike, and Ed. Braby, of the Liberty stake, following which a
spirited sermon was delivered by Elder Nephi L. Morris, on the subject,
"Let Us Worship God;" the text being from The Cotter's Saturday Night ,
The hymn, "0, ye mountains high," was sung by Sister Emma
Lucy Gates, assisted by the Tabernacle choir, followed by the congre-
gation singing "America."
The conference was celebrated for its splendid spirit and general
social good feeling.
On Friday evening, 9th, the General Board of the Young Men's
Associations tendered the Young Ladies' Board and the stake officers a
free admission to the concert of Miss Emma Lucy ! Gates, held in the
great Tabernacle, which was a very delightful musical feast. On Sat-
urday evening, a reception to the M. I. A. stake officers by the General
Boards, was held at the Granite Stake tabernacle. At this enjoyable
function, nearly one thousand officers attended, and it was pronounced
one of the best entertainments of these now celebrated annual gather-
ings.
EVENTS OF THE MONTH.
BY JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR.
Local.— May, 1905.
Ecclesiastical Changes.— About the 14th, David Kinghorn was
sustained as Bishop of the Lewisville ward, Idaho. — At the quarterly
conference of the Xebo Stake, held Saturday, 20th, and Sunday, 21st, the
Tintic district, of the Juab stake, was annexed to the Nebo stake, as it
was more convenient for the Tintic Saints to attend conference in the
Nebo stake. On the 21st, John T. Russell was chosen Bishop of St.
John ward, Tooele stake.— On the 28th, Anderson Steedman was chosen
and ordained Bishop of Mammoth ward in the stead of Bishop Fred
Lundburg who had removed to Payson. — At the quarterly conference of
the Box Elder stake, held Sunday, 28th, and Monday, 29th, Oleen X.
Stohl was sustained and ordained president of the stake, to fill the va-
cancy caused by the death of President Charles Kelly. President Stohl
chose as his counselors Lucius A. Snow and William C. Horsley.
Purchase of the Prophet's Birthplace. — On Tuesday, 23rd,
Junius F. Wells, in behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, purchased the Mack farm, in Sharon, Windsor county, Vermont,
where the Prophet Joseph Smith was born, Dec. 23, 1805.
Monument to Memory of Daniel H. Wells.— Monday, 29th, a
monument to the memory of the late President Daniel H. Wells was
dedicated in the city cemetery, Salt Lake City. The monument which
is one of the most imposing in the state, stands near the entrance of the
cemetery, and was erected by the family of General Wells. The cere-
monies were presided over by Ex-Governor Heber M. Wells. The speak-
ers at the dedication were Presidents Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder
and Anthon H. Lund, Bishop R. T. Burton and Elder Junius F. Wells. The
invocation was offered by Bishop Orson F. Whitney and the benediction
by Bishop William B. Preston. The monument is a polished shaft, sur-
716 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
mounted by a globe of dark Quincey granite, set on a Utah granite base.
It was built by the R. C. Bowers Granite Co., Montpelier, Vt., under the
direction of the Elias Morris Sons Co., of this city.
Died. — Tuesday, 2nd, in Pleasant View, Idaho, Mary S. Bowen, pres-
ident of the Primary association of the Pleasant View ward, born
Spanish Fork, Oct. 19, 1860. — Wednesday, 10th, in Ogden, Mary Ann
Rycraft, born London, May 10, 1821, joined the Church and came to
Utah 50 years ago. — In Smithfield, the funeral of Robert A. Bain was
held Friday, 12th. He was born in Dundee, Scotland, Aug. 28, 1830, was
baptized January 9, 1847, and for many years was an active missionary.
— In Price, Utah, Friday, 12th, Keziah J. J. Empey, one of the first set-
tlers of that place. — Thursday, 18th, in Salt Lake City, Lorenzo D.
Young, son of President Brigham Young, born Sept. 22, 1856. — Thurs-
day, 18th, in Salt Lake City, Richard Brimley, a highly respected citizen
who for several years was bishop of the 5th ward. He was born in
Euxton, Lancashire, Eng., Aug. 26, 1822. — Monday, 22nd, in Coalville
John Boyden, one of the leading citizens of Summit county, born in
Staffordshire, Eng., in 1841, and came to Utah in 1860. For many
years he was a member of the High Council of the Summit stake, and
held many civil offices. — Friday, 26th, in Salt Lake City, Mrs. Annie M.
Thomas, wife of Postmaster Arthur L. Thomas, from blood-poisoning. —
Sunday, 28th, in Salt Lake City, Matthew Miller, a high priest in the
Salt Lake stake, born Maryhill, Scotland, Mar. 11, 1842. — In Salt Lake
City, Monday, 29th, Isabella A. Wardrop, born Nauvoo, Mar. 10, 1846.
— Tuesday, 29th, in West Portage, Patriarch Oliver C. Hoskins, the first
president of the Malad stake. He was born in Georgetown, 111., May
17, 1827, was baptized at Garden Grove, Iowa, in 1851, and came to
Utah in 1862. Oct. 23, 1887, he was ordained a bishop, and presided
over the Portage ward until January 12, 1888, when he was chosen pre-
sident of the Malad stake. Elder Hoskins filled several missions, and
was an active Church worker. — Tuesday, 30th, in Ogden, William But-
ler, one of Utah's early settlers. He was born at Gorney, Wexford
county, Ireland, Aug. 15, 1825, and came to Utah in 1850, where be
joined the Church soon after his arrival. — In Parowan, Wednesday, 31st,
Sarah F. McGregor, a pioneer of southern Utah, and a veteran of Kirt-
land and Nauvoo, born October 24, 1828, and baptized at the age of
eight years.
County Assessments for 1905. — The total assessed valuation for
Salt Lake County for the year 1905, aggregates the sum of $47,898,247,
an increase of $1,000,000 since last year. The assessment of Weber
County is $12,341,827, an increase of $197,255 over 1904.
EVENTS OF THE MONTH. 717
Beneficial Life Insurance Company.— On the 10th, articles of in-
corporation of the Beneficial Life Insurance company were filed in the
office of the county clerk of Salt Lake county. The capital stock is di-
vided into 1000 shares of $100. each. The officers of the company are:
President Joseph F. Smith; first vice-president, John C. Cutler; second
vice-president, Lorenzo N. Stohl; treasurer, Joseph Nelson; Secretary,
John Stringham. There is also a board of directors which includes many
prominent business men of Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Arizona.
Death of Albert R. Smith.— On Wednesday, 17th, President
Albert R. Smith, of the San Luis stake of Zion, died at his home in.
Manassa, Conejos county, Colorado, after a lingering illness. He was
the son of Silas S. and Sarah A. Ricks Smith, and was born in Paragoonah,
Iron county, Utah, April 11, 1862. With his father he became one of
the pioneers of Conejos county. He performed a mission to the South-
ern states in 1887, and for several years was clerk of the San Luis
stake. In 1892, he was called to preside over that stake, succeeding his
father who at present lives in Utah. During his administration he gained
the love of the Saints, and the good will of the Gentiles residing in
Conejos and adjoining counties.
June, 1905.
President Brigham Young's Birthday. — The 104th anniversary of
the birth of President Brigham Young was celebrated at Logan, Thurs-
day, June 1. Many guests from Salt Lake City and other parts of the
state were in attendance. A splendid program and a banquet were the
features of the entertainment. Brigham Morris Young was chosen pres-
ident of the family association.
Death of Elder Joseph Gill. — Elder Joseph S. B. Gill, a mission-
ary laboring in the Eastern states mission, died in Pittsburg from an at-
tack of typhoid fever, Friday, 2nd. He was the son of William and
Elizabeth Brown Gill, and was born in Weston, Oneida county, Idaho,
October 9, 1870; was baptized by Elder Rasmus Nielsen when eight
years of age, and was an active worker in the Weston ward. Elder Gill
was a member of the 142nd quorum of Seventy, and was set apart for
his field of labor in the Eastern states, Nov. 1, 1904, by Elder Seymour
B. Young. The body was brought home by Elder J. H. Archibald.
Died.— In Kaysville, Thursday, 1st, Robert W. Barton, a pioneer
and Indian war veteran, born Yorkshire, England, April 29, 1826, came
to America in 1843, and joined the Church in Nauvoo. During the
exodus, he journeyed with the Saints to Utah where he arrived in 1851,
and assisted in the building up of settlements.— Friday, 2nd, Caleb Bald-
718 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
win Rhodes, a pioneer trapper and hunter, who came to Utah in 1846,
one year before the pioneers. — In Wellsville, Monday, 5th, Samuel G.
Perkins, a pioneer of that place. — In Ogden, Wednesday, 7th, James
Riley, a pioneer of Weber county, born in Wigan, Lancashire, April 27,
1823, joined the Church in his native land, and came to Utah in 1852.
— In Salt Lake City, Thursday, 8th, William C. Dunbar, one of the best
known citizens of the State of Utah, born in Inverness, Scotland, 83
years ago, joined the Church in 1840, and came to Utah in 1852. Two
years later he filled a mission in his native land, and for many years was
a counselor to Bishop John Sharp of the Twentieth ward. He was al-
ways actively engaged in church work, music, and useful enterprises
among the people. In 1870, with Edward L. Sloan, he founded the Salt
Lake Herald, and for many years was the manager of that paper.
Domestic— May, 1905.
Chicago's Reign of Terror. — For the past four months, Chicago
has been subject to a reign ^of terror caused by the teamsters' strike.
The strike began when a number of garment workers, employed in one
of the leading clothing houses, quit work as a protest against the em-
ployment of men who were not members of the union. The places of
the strikers were soon filled, which aroused the union men, who per-
suaded the teamsters employed by the clothing house also to strike. The
strike gradually spread, and other business houses that had dealings
with the firm where the trouble began, were drawn into the dispute,
and were boycotted by the unions. The teamsters' union took up the
cause of the strikers, and tied up almost all traffic in the city. The
Chicago authorities seem powerless to cope with the striking element,
and the mayor, for some reason, has refused to call on the governor for
militia to quell the unlawful disturbances which hourly take place. Even
peaceable citizens have been brutally beaten and murdered by the law-
less strikers, who have hired ruffians to assault non-union men and union
men who are at work. In April, a workman was brutally murdered,
and a released convict boastingly declared that he had been hired to
commit the crime, for which he received the sum of fifteen dollars.
This remark led to the arrest of one of the leaders of the carriage mak-
ers' union, who confessed to the employment of ruffians for the purpose
of assaulting non-union men. Other union officers were arrested, and
now await trial on the charge of murder. At -the present writing, no
settlement of the difficulties appears in sight. Of these brutal scenes,
the New York Independent says:
No honest man endowed with common sense should have the least
EVENTS OF THE MONTH. 719
difficulty in ascertaining the true character of the labor insurrection in
Chicago, or in seeing what is the only remedy for such disgraceful and
shocking exhibitions of anarchy. Throughout last week the city was at
the mercy of a mob. In many of the streets there was almost continu-
ous riot. Several men were killed, many were so brutally beaten that
their injuries may be fatal, hundreds were disabled by wounds of various
kinds. Citizens having not the remotest connection with the contro-
versy were murderously attacked. The pastor of one of the Presbyte-
rian churches nearly lost his life at the hands of ruffians who sought
to uphold the cause of the strikers and boycotters by beating anyone
who seemed to be without protection. In the heart of the city, at the
doors of its finest hotels, men were shot or clubbed almost to death
simply because they had accepted work which the attacking ruffians
had declined to do. A peaceable old man, delivering a little bundle of
goods in his own wagon, because there was no one to do it for him, was
murdered for thus trying to keep his agreement and earn a living.
These were some of the incidents of this insurrection of the teamsters'
union.
Last Survivor of toe War of 1812.— On the 18th, the body of
Hyrum Cronk, the last of the veterans of the war of 1812, was buried
in Cypress Hill cemetery, New York, with imposing military honors.
May Fatalities.— On the night of Wednesday, 10th, a sever? tor-
nado swept over the town of Snyder, Oklahoma, and caused terrible de-
struction. Nearly one hundred lives were lost, and a large number of the
inhabitants were injured. The los3 of property is estimated at $350,000.
— On the following day, the Cleveland express, on the Pennsylvania
railroad, collided with a wrecked freight train at Harrisburg, Pa., and
an explosion of dynamite followed, killing about thirty persons and in-
juring over one hundred others.
President Roosevelt and a Third Term. — President Theodore
Roosevelt declared most emphatically, on the 10th, that he would not
be a candidate for another term as President of the United States.
June, 1905.
Collision on the Salt Lakh: Route.— The overland passenger
train on the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake, which left Salt
Lake City Sunday evening, 4th, collided with an east-bound special near
Riverside, Cal., on the 6th, and two lives were lost. This is the first
serious accident on the new road.
The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition.— The Exposition
in honor of the historical exploration of the Oregon country by Captain
Merriwether Lewis and William Clark, one hundred years ago, was for-
mally opened on the 1st, with a splendor never before witnessed in the
720 IMPROVEMENT ERA.
Pacific northwest. President Roosevelt, at the White House, gave the
signal by telegraph which started the machinery of the exposition mov-
ing. The ceremonies began promptly at 12 o'clock, and were directed
by President H. W. Goode, of the exposition, in the presence of a vast
assembly. Many leading statesmen were in attendance, including
Vice-President Fairbanks and Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, who were the
principal orators on the occasion.
Foreign.— May, 1905.
Defeat op the Russian Squadron.— What appears to be one of the
greatest naval battles of modern warfare was fought Saturday, 27th, in
the straits of Korea, not far from the western coast of Japan, between
the Russian Baltic squadron, under command of Admiral Rozhdestvensky,
and the Japanese fleet commanded by Admiral Togo. The battle resulted
in an overwhelming victory for the Japanese. With very few excep-
tions, the entire fleet of the Russians was destroyed or captured, while
the loss of life among them was very great. The Japanese escaped
with very little damage to their fleet and with small loss of life. Ad-
miral Rozhdestvensky was captured shortly after the battle and was
found to be in a serious condition, his skull being fractured.
Death of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild. — Baron Alphonse de
Rothschild, head of the French branch of the banking house of the name
of Rothschild, died Friday, 28th, in Paris, France. He was born in 1827,
and was one of the greatest leaders in the financial world. The funeral
services which were held in Paris,were quite simple for a man of wealth,
but in keeping with the custom of the Rothschild family.
June, 1905.
The Norway-Sweden Union Dissolved.— On Wednesday, 7th, the
Norwegian Storthing declared the union between Norway and Sweden,
which has existed for nearly one hundred years, dissolved, and that the
king had ceased to act as king of Norway. The Storthing, or parlia-
ment, also empowered the present state council of Norway to act as a
government of Norway until further notice, and to exercise the power
heretofore appertaining to the king. An address to King Oscar of Swe-
den was adopted, declaring that no ill feeling was entertained against
him, his dynasty, nor the Swedish nation, and asking him to co-operate
in the selection of a young prince of the royal house — that of Berna-
dotte — to occupy the throne of Norway. The dissolution of the union,
or confederacy, existing between Norway and Sweden has been pending
for some time, and had its growth in the desire for the establishment
of a separate consular system for the two countries.
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ment uses its long experience in placing before you de-
sirable merchandise at the lowest prices? Where, if you
have twenty-five cents to spend you can save your car
fare, and if you have a dollar to spend you can save a
quarter. We offer all this to you. Our regular custo-
mers know this; you try us too, and make your purchas-
ing a pleasure. When you leave your dollars at our store,
you'll be as pleased with our goods as we' are in having
your patronage. Where else can you find such mutual
satisfaction?
% K. THOPS DflY GOODS GO.
67-69-71 Main St.
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